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EUROPEAN AND JAPANESE GARDENS 



European and Japanese Gardens 

Papers read before 
The American Institute of Architects 



ITALIAN GARDENS. By A. D. F. Hamlin 
ENGLISH GARDENS. By R. Clipston Sturgis 
FRENCH GARDENS. By John Galen Howard 
JAPANESE GARDENS. By K. Honda 



Edited lor The American Institute of Architects 
By Glenn Brown, Secretary 



PHILADELPHIA : 

HENRY T. COATES & CO. 

1902 



Tfm.rBRAnv of 

CONGRESS, 

Two COPt£fi RECttVEB 

AUG. 16 1902 

COPVBIOMT ENTBV 

CLASS «-XXc. Ho. 

^%1 13. 

COPY B. 



Copyrighted, 1902 
BY Henry T. Coates & Co. 



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Innes & Sons, Printers 
Philadelphia 



INTRODUCTION 

Only within a very recent period have architects of 
the United States appreciated the fact that the garden 
should be designed in connection with the house. To 
encourage and popularize this fact the Committee of 
Arrangements for the Thirty-fourth Annual Convention 
of the American Institute of Architects determined to 
make the subject of Gardens one of the principal topics 
of consideration. It was fortunate to have been able 
to secure papers from those who were such enthusiastic 
and scholarly students of the field which each presented 
in their papers to the Institute. The articles were 
read in Washington, D. C, December 14th, 1900, and 
they produced such a favorable impression that it was 
thought proper by the Board of Directors to have 
them, together with the illustrations, printed so that 
their influence would be of a more permanent value. 
After due consideration by the Board the publication 
of the material, under the supervision of the Institute, 
was given to The Architectural Publishing Company of 
Philadelphia. In the work as issued the authors have 
in some cases enlarged the scope of their papers and 
many illustrations in addition to those presented to 
the Institute have been inserted in the present volume. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Italian Formal C^arden ii 

English Ctardens 67 

French Gardening and Its Master 97 

Japanese Gardens 131 

Notes on a Japanese Garden in California 159 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Italian Gardens : 

Villa Corsini, Stairway Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Axilla Corsini, Detail of the Stairway 63 

Villa Lante, (reneral View 10 

The Plan 21 

" " Approach to Central Fountain 29 

" " Fountain and Stairway 35 

" " The Central Fountain 3y 

" " Small Fountain 46 

Villa Pia, Bird's-eye View 13 

" ." Plan of Casino and Terrace 14 

Villa Caprarola, The Lower Fountain 16 

" " Fountain of The Goblet 32 

Villa Borghese, Fountain 17 

" " Temple of .-Esculapius 19 

" " The Casino 26 

" " Small Fountains and Sculpture 34 

" " Avenue 43 

Wall Fountain 60 

Villa d'Este at Tivoli, Bathing Pool 17 

" " " " The Palace and Terracing 22 

" " " " Ruined Water-Organ ;^^ 

The Plan 54 

" " " " Lower Level and Pools 39 

Caserta, Approach to Rear of the Palace 20 

" Water Course 40 

" Upper Cascade and Actaeon Group 41 

" Central Feature of Water Course 41 

" General View of Avenue 42 

Villa Colonna, Entrance Gateway 23 

Villa Pamfili Doria, The Plan 24 

" " " View from the Terrace 25 

Royal Villa Castello, Fountain 27 

Villa Albani, View from Colonnade 28 

" " Fountain and Terrace 44 



Italian Gardens — Continued : page 

Villa Albani, The Central Fountain 45 

" " Entrance Crate 53 

Villa d'Este on Lake Como, Cascade of Hercules 30 

Boboli (xardens, Fountain i(> 

" " Avenue 47 

" " Ilex Tunnel 48 

" " Amphitheatre 49 

'' " Entrance and Rear of Pitti Palace 52 

The Hill Walk 58 

Villa Petraia, Fountain 46 

Villa Medici, The Plan 50 

Farnese ( iardens, Section and Perspective ( Drawings ) 51 

Villa Aldobrandini, The Plan 55 

" " The Chateau d'Eau 56 

Villa Torlonia — Conti, Water Works .■ • • 57 

Isola Bella 59 

Hillside (iardens near Naples 62 

English Gardens : 

View from Montecute House 66 

A Terrace at Montecute 68 

Flowers against the Terrace Wall at Montecute 69 

A Double Bordered Path 70 

A Garden backed with Trees 71 

The Gardens at Frankleigh 72 

A Shaded Walk at Frankleigh 73 

A Walk before the House 74 

On the Terrace at Frankleigh 75 

A (rarden Corner 76 

Box Bordered Beds 77 

Terraces 78 

A Small House-Court 78 

A Broad Walk to the House 79 

The More Formal Garden, A\'ilton 80 

The Garden Walk 81 

Gardens of Heathfield House 82 

A Modern House and Garden 83 

Cirass Terraces and Garden-House 84 

Gardens of Kiddington Hall 85 

The Si)acious P^ffect at Eynsham Hall 86 

The Wall of a Modern (harden 87 



En(;lish CtARI )Exs — Continued : 

A Level Stretch 

A Pool 

A Well-laid Lawn .... 

A Garden Path 

The Oblong Pool 

An Outlook from the House 
A Hedge Gateway .... 



French Gardens : 

Versailles, The Basin of Latone 

" Lead Vase 

The Plan •. . . 

" Basin of Latone and the Tapis Vert 

" Basin of Latone and the Palace . . 

" The Basin of Apollo 

" The Basin of Ceres 

" Grove of the Colonnade 

" The Basin of the Dragon .... 

" The Orangery 

" The Garden of the Grand Trianon 

Fontainebleau, The Cross of Franchard . . . 

" Gorge of the Medlars .... 

The Plan 

" The Palace from the Park . . 

" The Palace from the Parterres 

" The Ciardens 

" Basin of the Cascade .... 

Chantilly, The Chateau from the Lake . . . 

" The Ciardens 

" "The Isle of Love" 

Marly, Plan of the Park 

The Tuileries, (ieneral View 

" A Promenade 

" The Main Avenue 

" The Tuileries and the Louvre . 

Luxembourg, The Medici Fountain 

" A Fountain 

" Gardens and Palace 

The Plan 

St. Cloud, The Plan 

The Park 



AGK 

88 

89 

90 

90 

91 
92 

93 

96 

97 
98 

99 

[OO 
[OO 

toi 

[02 
[02 

[04 

^05 
[06 
[07 
[08 
[09 

10 
1 1 

12 

13 
14 

15 
16 

17 
18 

19 

: 20 
21 

2 2 

23 
:4 

:25 



French (Gardens — Continued: page 

The Grand Cascade 126 

" Ruins of the Palace 127 

St. Germain, The Terrace 128 

Japanese Gardens : 

Prince Hotta's (iarden 13° 

Mangwanji (xarden 13^ 

Plate I — Hill Garden ; Finished Style 132 

Duke Shimazu's Garden 133 

'I'he Mikado's Garden, Tokio 134 

'I'he Fukiage Garden i35 

(xarden of the Imperial Palace 136 

Stone Lanterns, Uyeno i37 

Sorinto, Nikko 138 

Fukagawa (larden 139 

Plate II — Hill Garden ; Intermediary Style 141 

Plate III — Hill Garden ; Rough Style 141 

Plate IV — Flat Garden; Finished Style 142 

Kasuga, Nara 143 

Bracket Bridge, Fukagawa Garden 144 

A Gentleman's Garden, Bancho 145 

Plate V — Flat Garden ; Intermediary Style 146 

Plate VI — Flat Garden ; Rough Style 146 

Stone Steps, Hakone Temple 147 

Kunoozan Temple at Shizuoka 148 

Plate VII — Garden Lanterns 149 

Plate VIII — Water-Basins and Lanterns 149 

A Tea-House Garden, Tokio 150 

(iarden of the Akasaka Rikiu 152 

Plate IX — CJarden Fences 153 

Plate X — Garden Gateways 154 

Plate XI — Garden Bridges 155 

Plate XII — (xarden Arbors 155 

A Japanese Garden in California : 

General View 158 

The Entrance 159 

Flowers in Pots 160 

Inside the Entrance 161 

Summer-House and Stream 162 



THE ITALIAN FORMAL GARDEN 

^V Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin 



THE ITALIAN FORMAL GARDEN 

By A. D. F. HAMLIN 

ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE, COLUMBIA UMVERSIIY 

I. 

A GARDEN is a portion of the earth's surface humanized. 
Nature is subjected to the designer's will ; trees, grass, 
flowers and shrubs are made to do his bidding, and 
an ordered design takes the place of the capricious wildness 
of the primitive growth. Gardening, as one of the decorative 
arts, deals with the materials of the earth's surface, and the 
vegetation and water which diversify and embellish it. In any 
style of gardening the results of the designer's labors are, and 
must be, artificial, whether he seek to counterfeit the appear- 
ance of the primitive meadow, forest and thicket, or to arrange 
his combinations of earth, rock, plants and water upon some 
arbitrary and conventional system. The difterent schools of 
the art are distinguished largely by the degree to which they 
incline towards one or the other of these systems of treatment : — 
towards naturalistic picturesqueness, or towards monumental 
and artificial regularity. The Italian villa gardens of the 
Renaissance are the highest representative of the second 
system. 

Gardening is an art of peace and luxury, and, as an 
accompaniment of buildings, follows in the wake of architec- 
ture. "Without it," says Bacon, writing in Elizabeth's time, 
"buildings and palaces are but gross handiworks; and a man 
shall ever see that when ages grow to civility and elegancy, 
men come to build stately sooner than to garden finely." As 
an art of luxury it fared poorly in the Dark and Middle Ages ; 
but when the Renaissance revived the arts of ancient Rome in 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the increasing sta- 
bility of the social order permitted the indulgence of personal 
luxury, gardening was revived with the other arts of antiquity, 
and its practice modelled after the suggestions offered by the 
ruins of ancient Roman prototypes. What these were we may 



The Italian Formal Garden 

learn from descriptions made familiar in the letters of Cicero 
and Pliny. These picture extensive domains, terraced, graded, 
embanked, balustraded, refreshed with fountains, adorned with 
every kind of edifice for ornament and rest, and beautified with 
every variety of foliage of trees, vines and shrubs. They pre- 
sent the counterpart of almost every feature characteristic of 
the Italian villa gardens of the sixteenth century. How com- 
plete and perfect the modern reproduction could be is evi- 
denced by the famous Villa Barberini at Castel Gondolfo, 
sixteen miles southeast from Rome, which Lanciani considers 
not only the finest he has ever seen, "but also (to quote his 
own words) the one w^hich comes nearer than any other to the 
type of an ancient siibui^baiuun. ... Its general plan and 
outline follow precisely the plan and outline of the glorious 
villa of Domitian. . . . The ancient ruins, the foundation 
walls of the huge terraces, the nymphaea and other remains, 
are so completely concealed and screened by a thick growth 
of ivy, ferns and other evergreens, that one feels, more than 
sees, the antiquity of the place. By a singular coincidence no 
tree, no shrub, no flower, no bud that is not purely classic 
seems to be allowed to live in this magnificent domain. No 
flower is allowed to diversify the emerald green of the lawns, 
except the classic rose and violet, and to make the illusion 
more perfect, flocks of peacocks have selected the groves of 
this villa for their abode." '=' The Villa Pia in the Vatican gar- 
dens is another excellent reproduction in modern dress of the 
Roman conception of a villa of modest dimensions. Not only 
in Rome, but scattered also throughout central Italy, and along 
the Bay of Naples, were innumerable remains of antique villas, 
overgrown with ivy and weeds, but awaiting only the touch of 
the artist to bloom anew in fresh loveliness ; their terrace- 
walls and stairs rebuilt, their water courses and fountains again 
musical with running water, their thickets trimmed, and flower- 
beds once more blossoming on their terraced levels. 

These ancient gardens were extremely formal. No plant 
was allowed to grow uncontrolled. Trees were pruned, clipped, 
trained and trimmed into the semblance of any and every form 
except that of tree : a species of art called topiary zuork, which 
was revived in the Renaissance and carried to extremes by the 
gardeners of Holland and England in the seventeenth and 

* Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent Excavations, pp. 279-280. 



European and Japanese Gardens 




The Italian Formal Garde] 







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PLAN OF CASINO AND TERRACE OF THE VILLA PIA 
Designed by Pirro Ligorio, 1540 



European and Japanese Gardens 

eighteenth centuries. It is evident that the lo\e of nature, as 
nature, for its own sake, is a purely modern sentiment, due in 
large measure to the influence of the poets of the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries. The ancients regarded nature as a 
servant, not a mistress, and indulged little sentiment for nature 
in the abstract. The same is largely true of the Renaissance 
gardeners. They did not seek to counterfeit the meadows and 
forests, the hills and vales of wild nature or to bring trees and 
shrubs and topography into any semblance of the picturesque 
and accidental combinations of a natural landscape. Their 
gardens, and preeminently those of Italy, were each designed 
as a decorative setting to the palace or villa, or as pleasure- 
grounds in which what was most pleasing was the human ele- 
ment — the evidence of design, symmetry, order, balance, con- 
trast, ornament ; not the aspect of natural growth, but the 
evidence of nature subdued to human control. 

II. 

The steps by w^hich the Renaissance garden, based upon 
these suggestions, reached final form, I have been unable to 
trace. No very early example remains to us, at least in the 
shape in which it was designed. With the progress of the art 
and changes in taste the earlier gardens must have all been made 
over, for a garden is not, like a building, a finality when once fin- 
ished. It changes from season to season, and the growth and 
decay of its vegetation alike alter its pristine aspect. We 
know, however, that before the close of the fifteenth century 
the gardens of Naples were celebrated for their beauty, for 
Charles VIII, of France, writing in 1495 to Pierre de Bourbon, 
waxes eloquent in praise of those which had come into his pos- 
session in that city. But it was not till about 1540 that any 
garden received the form in which we know it to-day, even in 
its general features. The classical tendencies of architecture 
and decoration had by this time reached their highest and finest 
development in the works of men like Peruzzi, Antonio da San 
Gallo the Younger, Vignola, Giulio Romano, Pirro Ligorio, and 
others. The influence of the taste of Bramante and Raphael 
was still potent, and the extravagances of the Baroque style 
were still in the future. The papal court had then reached its 
greatest splendor, and Roman society had begun to be domi- 



15 



The Italian Formal Garden 




European and Japanese Gardens 




At the Villa Borghese 




At the Villa d'Este 



LULLED BY THE SOUND OF THE FOUNTAINS" 



17 



The Italian Formal Garden 

nated l)y the great ecclesiastical princes and the formidable 
array of Pope's nephews who monopolized the higher posts of 
Church and State. Most of the finest villas were built for car- 
dinals and church dignitaries, of whom the majority sustained 
this dubious relation to the head of the Church, The Lante, at 
Bagnaia, first built in 1477 for Cardinal Riario, was, about 1550, 
remodelled by Vignola for one of the Farnese nephews. To 
this family also belonged the imposing castle and beautiful 
grounds at Caprarola, also Vignola's work. The superb Villa 
d'Este at Tivoli, one of the earliest as well as finest of extant 
works of the kind, was designed about 1540 by Pirro Ligorio, 
for the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. At Frascati, the ancient Tus- 
culum, is an extraordinary group of contiguous villas — the 
Aldobrandini, Falconieri, Manclragone, and others, all built for 
cardinal princes b\ such artists as Delia Porta, Giovanni Fon- 
tana, Olivieri, Martino Lunghi, Flaminio Ponzio, and others. At 
Rome the Borghese Villa, originally built for the dukes of 
Altemps, was enlarged in 1605 by (for) Caffarelli, nephew of 
Paul V ; on attaining the cardinalate he assumed the name of 
Borghese. The Farnese, Farnesina, Pamfili Doria, Albani, and 
a dozen others, owe their existence to the wealth and extrava 
gance of these churchly lords. With the decline of the secular 
power of the Church consequent upon the Reformation, the 
social conditions out of which these vast establishments had 
grown, slowly passed away ; the building of new villas ceased, 
and it has been only with the utmost dii^culty that some of these 
vast and wealth-consuming estates have since been maintained 
in even tolerably perfect condition. Not a few have run to 
decay, and are to-day endowed with the new and melancholy 
charm of ruin. Nature has reconquered the domain where 
she was held captive to man's caprice, and vines, trees, shrubs, 
grass and dust have done their best to obliterate the work of 
human hands. Other gardens have been sold under the ham- 
mer or cut up into building lots, and there is no likelihood that 
many new ones will arise in their places, for Italy is poor, and 
there is no such concentration of wealth in strong families as 
to make probable the creation of new splendors of the kind. 
Those that remain are, therefore, doubly precious ; they are 
uni(|ue, for no modern imitation can reproduce their antique 
charm ; and nowhere else in the world is there the environ- 
ment of atmosphere, associations and art which envelops these 



European and Japanese Garde 



NS 




The Italian Formal Garden 




European and Japanese Gardens 











" ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF THE VILLA GARDEN " 
Plan of Villa Lante At Bagnaia 



ancient and glorious 
estates with such 
loveliness of pros- 
pect and setting. 

Given the condi- 
tions which I have 
tried to sketch, it is 
easy to understand 
the results that came 
about in the domain 
of landscape gard- 
ening. The churchly 
patricians who built 
the villas were no 
recluses, seeking the 
solitude of the glens 
and forests to hold 
communion only 
with themselves and 
nature. They were 
the powerful, proud 
and wealthy leaders 
of a society conspic- 
uous for its worldli- 
ness and love of dis- 
play. Like true Ital- 
ians they loved the 
open air, but unlike 
the lords of Eng- 
land and France, 
they had no taste for 
the chase, and the 
necessities of their 
state precluded their 
resorting to distant 
castles embowered 
in the forests or hid- 
den in the gorges 
of the Apennines. 
It was to the villa 
that thev fled for 



The Italian Formal Garden 




THIS IS TRUE OF THE GARDENS AS THEY APPEAR TO-DAY' 



The Palace and Terracing 



Villa d'Fste, Tivoll 



European and Japanese Gardens 

refuge. Its "casino," or little house, was less a residence 
than a pleasure-house for their* hours of relaxation or social 
amusement. Its alleys and terraces, walks and shelters took 
the place in their life which piazzas and "living-halls" do 
in ours ; in them they passed their leisure, walking with their 
friends, reclining under the arbors, lulled by the sound of 
the fountains ; reading, meditating and conversing, or giving 




A SOMEWHAT PRETENTIOUS GATEWAY 



Entrance to the Villa Colonna 



23 



The Italian Formal Garden 




PLAN OF THE GARDENS 



Villa Pamfili Doria 



24 



European and Japanese Gardens 

splendid entertainments to the brilliant companies that 
resorted thither. Passionate collectors of antiquities, and 
affecting, when they did not cherish it, an enthusiasm for 
antique life, they made their gardens veritable museums, 
even at last, counterfeiting antique ruins when thev were 
not fortunate enough to hnd them ready at hand on their 
estates. The villa was thus no park, no reserved territory 
left to the beauty of its natural wildness, no mere spread of 
lawn diversified with trees and shrubs. It was designedly an 
artificial creation, an artistic ensemble, of which the house and 
the gardens were distinct and complementary parts, the whole 
treated as a decorative composition, in which each portion 
and each detail played a definite role. It was formal and 
artificial, it was refined and classical in style and detail, because 
that was what the taste of the time demanded, and because no 
other treatment befitted the antique fragments and sculptures 
which formed the basis of their adornment. 

But these villa gardens, with all their formal regularitv of 




View from the Terrace 



'the juxtaposition of art and NATURE" 



Villa Pamfili Doria 



25 



The Italian Formal Garden 

design, were and are still so beautiful that they have never 
ceased to excite the admiration of every visitor. They were 
designed by masters, men of taste and culture, filled with the 
sense of beauty, who wrought in harmony with their environ- 
ment and with the beauties of the prospect and atmosphere 
about them. However questionable the taste of certain deco- 
rati\e details, their general decorative effect is almost always 




Casino, Villa Borghese 



THE CENTRAL FEATURE IS THE HOUSE OR CASINO' 



excellent and in harmony with the fanciful and wayward beauty 
of the gardens. At least this is true of the gardens as they ap- 
pear to-day, the crumbling stuccoes and the masonry stained by 
weather, tinged orange and green by lichens and mosses, over- 
run with ivy and creeping roses, and contrasting richly with 
the dark green of the stone pines behind and the ilex and 
box in front. Their charm is not wholly of atmosphere and 
color and rampant vegetation, nor merely the romantic half- 
melancholy of their silent walks, their grass-grown terraces, 
their whispering pines, and gentle decay. They possess a posi- 
tive artistic beauty in the proportion and balance which control 



26 



European and Japanese Gardens 




THE TERRACING IS WORTHY OF CAREFUL STUDY' 



Royal Villa Castello 



Near Florence 



The Italian Formal Garden 

the whole composition. There is enough architecture — not too 
much ; the contrasts are never too violent ; sculptures and 
decorations are distributed with a rare sense of propriety ; 
the water works are pleasingly varied and judiciously placed. 
Above all, scale is treated with consummate skill, A small 
garden is not designed like a great one, nor a monumental 
composition frittered away with petty details. 




THE NEARLY LEVEL VILLA ALBANI ' 



III. 

The essential features of the Italian villa gardens are easily 
stated : first, the selection of a sloping site, cut into terraces 
affording a varied prospect from their successive levels. Sec- 
ondly, the distinctly architectural treatment of conspicuous 
points and features of the design. Thirdly, the use of running 
water in fountains and cascades upon each level of the design. 
Fourthly, the formal arrangement of flower-beds, hedges and 



28 



European and Japanese Gardens 




THE DECORATIONS OF ARCHITECTURE AND SCULPTURE 



Approach to Central Fountain 



Villa Lante, Bagnaia 



avenues so as to provide vistas closed by decorative structures, 
and to ofter at every turn a pleasing contrast in the juxtaposi- 
tion of art and nature. 

Every one of these elements has its origin in Roman prac- 
tice, as shown not only by ruins, but by frescoes in Rome (as 
in the Casino di Livia on the Palatine) and Pompeii. Each 
has in a measure been adopted in the landscape gardening of 
other countries, but rarely are all four elements combined as 
they are in Italy. On the other hand, the Italian gardener 
rarely or never employs the vast levels and long vistas of 
French gardening, while, in the treatment of water, he avoids 
the massive and lofty jets and immense basins which distin- 
guish the gardens of Versailles. Toward the sloping lawns 
and meandering paths of English and American grounds he 
feels much as the Frenchman did who said, " Nothing is easier 
than to lay out an English garden : one has only to make the 
gardener drunk and then follow his meanderings." 

The typical Italian villa — such, for instance, as the Villa 



29 



The Italian Formal Garden 

Lante, at Bagnaia, near Viterbo, the work of Vignola, or Pirro 
Ligorio's Villa Pia in the Vatican grounds, at Rome — com- 
prises a rectangular territory of a few acres, rarely more than 
ten or fifteen, its length twice or thrice its breadth, and the 
major axis following the profile or slope of the hill on which it 
is laid out. It is divided into three terraces (rarely two or four), 
each faced by a stone retaining-wall, surmounted by a balus- 
trade, and reached by broad stairways leading to the other 
levels. The lower level, entered from the street by a somewhat 
pretentious gateway, is the flower-garden proper; on the middle 
level is the house or casino, with the more important architec- 
tural accessories, such as colonnades, loggias, and summer 
houses. Behind and above this, the third level, planted with 
trees, and less formally treated than the other two, furnishes a 
shady and secluded retreat, grassy under foot, leafy overhead, 
musical with the song of birds and the trickle of water in the 




Cascade of Hercules 



DECORATIVE AND FESTAL CHARACTER" 

At the Villa d'Este on Lake Como 



30 



European and Japanese Gardens 

fountain. From the point of view of design, the dense foHage of 
this upper terrace serves as a foil and background for the more 
open and artificial levels below it, and as a transition to the 
wilder landscape of mountain and forest behind it. 

The flower-garden is laid out in geometrical compartments 
bordered by square-clipped hedges of box, within which fiowers 
and foliage plants are cultivated in beds forming elaborate 
scroll-patterns. The level walks are of gravel. An elaborate 
fountain adorns the central area, forming a focus and point of 
interest for the whole design. A high stone wall surrounds the 
garden on three sides ; it is usually covered with vines or hid- 
den by a profuse growth of box, yew, ilex, cypress, and pine, 
producing an impression of perfect seclusion with no oppres- 
sive display of prison-like walls. On the fourth side is the 
retaining-wall of the middle terrace, which forms a monu- 
mental decorative background for this lower garden, and a 
foundation and preparation for the elaborately architectural 
treatment of the second level. 

The central and dominant feature of the whole design is 
the house or casino on the second level, on which it sometimes 
advances to the front edge, as in the Pamfili Doria, its base- 
ment, entered from the garden, forming in such cases the cen- 
tral portion of the terrace wall. Designed chiefly as a pleasure- 
house, for short sojourns and entertainments, its architecture 
is usually of a festal and sometimes trivial character, perfectly 
in harmony with its purpose, and almost always in keeping 
with the fanciful, wayward charm of the gardens. Few of these 
casinos are commendable as architectural compositions, but 
the softening hand of time and the delightful beauty of the old 
gardens, which improve with age, impart to these somewhat 
dubious compositions an adventitious charm impossible to 
imitate. 

In the Villa Lante, at Bagnaia, near Viterbo, there is an 
interesting departure from the usual practice. Tzuo houses, or 
casini, stand one on either side of the central axis, permitting 
an unobstructed axial vista through the whole extent of the 
grounds, from top to bottom. Occasionally the casino is a 
palazzo of considerable size, as in the Villa d'Este at Tivoli ; 
while in the cases of the Pitti palace and the palace at Capra- 
rola (the Villa Farnese), the entire \illa grounds lie behind the 
residence. 



31 



The Italian Formal Garden 




AIR OF PLAYFUL CAPRICE' 



Fountain of the Goblet' 



Villa Farnese at Caprarola 



Coming down to specific details, the following features 
deserve special attention : 

First, the terracing of the Italian gardens is worthy of care- 
ful study. Originating in the preference for sloping sites by 
means of which successive and diftering prospects are secured 
from the various levels, without interference of one with the 
other, it became a means of admirable effects within the gar- 
den itself. With its stairs, niches, grottoes, pilasters and balus- 
trades, it was studied, proportioned and arranged with great 
care, and usually with great success. An instructive contrast 
in the treatment of the terraces appears between the abruptly 
sloping Villa d'Este at Tivoli, and the nearly level Villa Albani 
or the Ouirinal (lardens at Rome. 

Secondly, the decorations of architecture and sculpture. 
The judicious arrangement, distribution, and scale and balance 
of the architecture have been noticed already, and its predomi- 
nantlv decorative and festal character alluded to. This air of 



32 



European and Japanese Gardens 



playful caprice is often carried to extremes, especially in the 
later villas, but in general it is, and in its modern imitations it can 
always be, kept within the bounds of good taste, so that every 
feature shall not only be well placed and pleasing in its effect, 
in conjunction with the foliage, grass and flowers, but pleasing 
also in itself as an architectural design. This was almost always 
true of the designs of Vignola, Giulio Romano, and Pirro 
Ligorio, but not always of their successors. There is some- 
times too sharp a contrast between the florid stucco decora- 
tions of terraces and fountains and the classic dignity of the 
antique fragments that adorn many of the gardens. Based, as 
this style of gardening is, on the models and on the actual 
remains of ancient Roman estates, it is most successful when 
its adornments of architecture and sculpture are classic in spirit 

and design, a 
principle which 
should not be lost 
sight of in mod- 
ern attempts at 
this sort of gar- 
dening. In the 
Italian examples 
the chief features 
claiming atten- 
tion may be cata- 
logued as follows: 
terrace -walls, 
balustrades and 
stairs, gate-ways, 
fountains, loggias 
and other aedi- 
cules, exedras, 
stone benches, 
marble vases on 
high pedestals, 
termini, and stat- 
uary in single fig- 
ures or groups. 
Every one of 
these features is 
capable of great 




PLAYFUL CAPRICE OFTEN CARRIED TO EXTREMES" 
Ruined Water-organ Villa d'Este,Tivoli 



33 



The Italian Formal Garden 




"adornments . . . CLASSIC IN SPIRIT AND DESIGN" 



Villa Borghese 



European and Japanese Gardens 

beauty of form, though requiring less fineness of execution 
than monumental buildings deserve. The triviality of many 
of the minor decorative figures and buildings of actual gardens 
in Italy in execution and detail, is no doubt reprehensible, but 
less offensiv^e than one would imagine, because of their charm- 
ing surroundings and the obviousness of their role, not as 
works valuable intrinsically, but as mere adjuncts and features 
in the general scenic effect of the whole. 

Thirdly, //ic frrafninit of zua/rr m the fountains, cascades 
and basins of these gardens exemplifies sound principles cor- 
rectly applied. A very small volume of water is made to pro- 
duce a maximum of decorative effect, and the greatest possible 
variety of effects, by repeated interruptions and changes of its 
movement from the reservoir above the upper terrace down to 
the last fountain basin in the flower-garden. Thrown up in 
small jets, it is poured from basin to basin of the fountains, in 
very thin but brilliant sheets or streams, to reappear, after 




"a small volume of water 



BROKEN AGAIN AND AGAIN' 



Villa Lante 



Bagnaia 



35 



The Italian Formal Garden 




"thrown up in small jets it is poured from basin to basin " 

The Boboli Gardens Florence 

passage through underground conduits, in the form of cas- 
cades, in which its fall is broken again and again by marble 
steps, basins and rockeries, massive cataracts, and lofty jets. 
The roar and agitation of powerful masses of water were rarely 
attempted or desired ; they would have been out of scale, so to 
speak, out of harmony with the refined elegance of the gar- 
dens. Great skill and taste were evinced in the design of the 
architectural and sculptural elements of these water works, 
which display generally the same sense of proportion and 
scale that has been already referred to, and there is often a 
touch of the grotesque, of humor and exaggeration in the 
accompanying sculpture, which like that of some of the statues 
on the terraces, enlivens the scene with a suggestion of 
comedy. 

Three typical examples of the handling of the water are 
furnished by the Villas Lante at Bagnaia and d'Este at Tivoli, 
and the palace gardens at Caserta. In the first-named, largely 



36 



European and Japanese Gardens 




" FOUR SUPPORTING FIGURES BEARING THE INSIGNIA OF THE FARNESE FAMILY" 
The Central Fountain Villa Lante, Bagnaia 

Vig-nola's work, the amount of water used is infinitesimal, and 
all the fountains are treated with great refinement of detail 
and smallness of scale, while in the flower-garden the fountain 
is chiefly sculptural, with four supporting figures bearing the 
insignia of the Farnese Family, for whom it was built. 



37 



The Italian Formal Garden 

At Tivoli, where there is too much water rather than not 
enough, and where the upper grades are very steep and the lower 
ones very gradual, the upper terraces of the Villa d'Este abound 
in monumental fountains and cascades, as well as in the ruins 
of innumerable trick fountains and aquatic eccentricities orig- 
inally designed to be set in operation by the unwitting steps 
of the visitor. Among them was formerly a celebrated water 
organ, now ruined and silent. The central cascade, or line of 
cascades, was of great volume, proportioned to the large scale 
of the whole villa, while on the lower, easy gradients, the water 
flowed quietly into and through great basins, bordered with 
vases, shaded with trees, and emptying by little cascades from 
one to the other, till the water finally disappeared underground. 
Carlo Fontana, rightly named, was the artificer of these water- 
w^orks. Several of the villas at Frascati, like the Mondragone 
and the Aldobrandini, illustrate the same principles. 

At Caserta we have the one example of the colossal in the 
scale of the water works of an Italian garden. These grounds 
w^ere laid out by Van Vitelli in 1 753, after a sojourn at Paris 
and Versailles, wdiere he had studied the vast landscape-works 
and fountains of Le Notre. In the Caserta grounds, if he did 
not better the instruction, he at least showed consummate skill 
in the adaptation of its teachings to his special conditions, 
wholly different from those at Versailles ; for the Caserta 
grounds are but one thousand feet wide, extending back two 
miles, first with a gentle grade and then by a steep ascent 
reaching the summit of the thickly-wooded hill far behind the 
palace. The water tumbles for nearly a mile over a channel 
filled with broken rocks, which churn it white, so that it is 
visible and effective even when seen from the palace two miles 
away. It then passes through a succession of immense basins, 
from each of which it issues by a cascade twenty or thirty feet 
high, each differing essentially from the others, and several of 
them adorned with statuary not always in the best taste. The 
architectural treatment of the successive cascades is ingeniously 
varied, and in several of them is conspicuously successful. A 
strip of grass two hundred feet wide on either side, planted 
with occasional flower-beds and flanked by wonderfully beauti- 
ful ilex avenues next the side walls of the grounds, completes 
the simple but effective plan of the gardens. Here the water 
is purposely handled on a colossal scale, suited to the great 



38 



European and Japanese Gardens 




The Italian Formal Garden 




European and Japanese Gardens 




A CHANNEL FILLED WITH BROKEN ROCKS' 
Upper Cascade and Actaeon Group 




"adorned with statuary not always in the best TASTE' 
Central Feature of Water Course 



Caserta 
41 



The Italian Formal Garden 




THE SIMPLE BUT EFFECTIVE PLAN OF THE GARDENS" 



General View of Avenue 



length of the grounds and to the vast size of the palace. It 
is a royal park, not a private citizen's garden. 

Fourthly, the trcaimoit of the trees mid grass is also char- 
acteristic of the Italian gardens. The American and English 
styles of park gardening, with broadly-sloping lawns sprinkled 
over with clumps of shrubbery and groups of trees, in a stud- 
iedly accidental and picturesque arrangement, with winding 
walks and drives giving the sense of distance and ever-chang- 
ing prospect, is not practised in the villa gardens, because 
it represents a wholly different conception of purpose and 
function from that which created them. Occasionally, as in 
parts of the Borghese grounds, one finds broad meadows, 
sloping lawns, and a natural or artificial wild-wood, but it is in 
most cases sharply distinguished from the formal part of the 
grounds, in which there is no mixing of the two sorts of 
gardening. 

Trees are used chiefly in two ways — first on the upper ter- 
race and around the outskirts of the formal garden, to serve as 
a picturesque background silhouetted with its stone pines and 



42 



European and Japanese Gardens 

cypresses or poplars against the sky, and contrasting in the 
purple darkness of its evergreen foliage with the lighter and 
gayer colors of the bright, sun-bathed architecture and garden 
walls. These trees furnish shade, coolness and repose, and 
in the older gardens they are sometimes of enormous size. 
Secondly, they are used to form avenues where the grounds 
are sufficiently extensive, as in the Pamfili Doria Villa, the Villa 
d'Este, or the Mattel Villa. Thirdly, at specified points in the 
flower-garden, or even on the second terrace, to relieve the 




THE TREATMENT OF TREES IS CHARACTERISTIC" 
Avenue of the Villa Borghese Rome 

formality, flatness or brilliancy of the parterres, gravel walks, 
and marble pavements. The trees most in use are the stone 
pine, poplar and cypress, for the more massive effects ; palm 
trees occasionally for isolated points of interest, and the ilex, box 
and yew for hedges and for the smaller avenues ; these last 
three being well adapted for topiary-work or tree-clipping on 
account of their fine and very dense foliage. The stone pine 
with its straight trunk and dignified outline, with its dark and 



43 



The Italian Formal Garden 




European and Japanese Gardens 



spreading top, is one of the most picturesque and decorative 
of all trees for backgrounds and large effects. The oak and 
chestnut also abound on the upper terraces of Italian grounds 
and in those wilder portions of wooded land which sometimes 
surround the formal garden. The ilex is a low shrub-like tree, 
of very slow growth but dense foliage, admirably suited for 

natural arl)ors, which 



those tunnel-like walks forming long. 



m 




The Central Fountain 



CYPRESSES SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE SKY' 



Villa Albani, Rome 



the Boboli and other gardens are so delightful and restful a 
resort. 

Closely cropped grass is used only as an accessory feature 
in the Italian formal gardens. The lawn, for its own sake, 
rarely figures in the Italian designs except in those large, pub- 
lic parks, which, like the Giardino Pincio and the Borghese 
gardens at Rome, serve a function like that of our city parks. 
The nearest approach to the lawn per se in the villas is in the 
grassy amphitheatres of some of the larger gardens like the 



45 



The Italian Formal Garden 




European and Japanese Gardens 

Boboli at Florence, belonging to the Pitti Palace, and the 
Borghese at Rome. These were terraced to afford an arena 
and open-air seating for athletic sports and mummeries in the 
olden time, and may not always have been covered with grass, 
but they are very beautiful in their present condition of refresh- 
ing greenness. 

IV. 

The garden, thus treated, was, as I have said, designed 
under special conditions and for a particular purpose. It was 




WHERE THE GROUNDS ARE SUFFICIENTLY EXTENSIVE" 



The Boboli Gardens 



intended first as the decorative setting for the social as well as 
private life of a very rich, worldly and splendor-loving aris- 
tocracy ; secondly, as an approach and environment for the 
palace, villa or casino of the proprietor, with which it must form 
an artistically congruous whole. It is evident that there could 
be here no question of rivalry with other kinds of gardens. The 



47 



The Italian Formal Garden 

vast park, with its drives for horseback riding, its brooks and 
bridges, its covers tor game, its preserves for deer, all that 
was peculiar and essential to the life of the English or French 
nobleman, was wholly out of the question here. All the ideas 
and conceptions of landscape gardening which, inherited from 
our English and French ancestors, we have derived from their 
ideal of the forest park, with its vast expanses of grass, thickets 
and trees, trimmed out and smoothed down by the gardener's 
care, and extended by art over other expanses at first destitute 




Ilex Tunnel 



LONG NATURAL ARBORS' 



The Boboli Gardens, Florence 



of shade or wanting in natural picturesqueness — these ideals 
and conceptions were, perforce, excluded from the problem of 
villa design. The two kinds of gardening serve different pur- 
poses and belong to different conditions. Each has its own 
beauty, each is perfectly legitimate ; both systems alike com- 
pel nature to do the designer s bidding, both involve the re- 
modeling of the earth's surface, the destruction of some of 
nature's productions, the recreation or substitution of others. 
But they proceed upon different lines, by ditlterent methods. 



48 



European and Japanese Gardens 




The Italian Formal Garden 



rai 




M 




m \m 

a^m Bar ^i^ mtP 

■BB cask yrHE mam 

J S3 IP f0,9 
^dl rail 

^^t^im»jmJr ^anauKMSHv nhauBKBiUBflF %^*BiaMaakM0 



S 



■J 



toward different results. As an abstract and academic ques- 
tion, controversy as to their relative merits is without signifi- 
cance or reason. Such discussion has its place only where 

specific prob- 
lems are pre- 
sented for solu- 
tion. It is, of 
course, open 
to question, 
whether, upon 
the site and 
within the lim- 
its of Mr. A.'s 
property, or 
with the sum 
which Mr. B. 
puts at the 
landscape gar- 
dener's dispo- 
sal, or in the 
climate and 
with the partic- 
ular surround- 
ings of Mr. C.'s 
estate, a formal 
or a pictur- 
esque treat- 
ment will be 
best. I hold no 
brief for the Ital- 
ian formal gar- 
den as against 
the park and 
wild -wood. I 
have simply 
tried to set 
forth the con- 
ditions under which it came into being, the artistic principles 
which controlled its design, and some of the methods and 
devices which produced the results attained. Some of the 
errors and defects of these methods I have suggested ; others 
are patent to every observer. 



1 




PLAN OF THE VILLA MEDICI GARDENS 
Rome 



50 



European and Japanese Gardens 

It is manifest that any attempt at a detailed reproduc- 
tion in this country of the exact dispositions of any ^iven ItaHan 
villa would be pedantic and irrational, if not absurd, because of 
wide divergences of condition, climate, life and environment. 
But it is not irrational to study the principles and methods of 
this highly developed art, and to adapt to our own con- 
ditions such of those principles and methods as lend them- 



■-f-:-' 




'^ 





*f 


/r 


' ■' 




1 \^ (,' 










* 





ORTI FARNESIANI (FARNESE GARDENS) ROME 

i Demolished I — Section and Perspective 

selves readily and artistically to those conditions. One or 
two cautions are, however, necessary. One should never 
forget, for instance, that many elements in the present aspect 
of these gardens are adventitious and wholly unforeseen in the 
original design, and that such as are due to the action of time 
and weather cannot be imitated or reproduced. Trees persist 
in growing, so do hedges. Masonry persists in crumbling ; 



51 



The Italian Formal Garden 

gardeners will undo their predecessors' work, and not a garden 
looks in 1900 precisely as it did in 1600. One should also dis- 
criminate carefully between the composition and the details of 
a design, since one may be excellent and the other very infe- 
rior. There is no one recipe or model for the Italian garden ; 
differences of site and size and environment have resulted in a 
marvelous variety of actual designs, in spite of the uniformity 
of their controlling elements, and the problem of any given 




AN APPROACH AND ENVIRONMENT FOR THE PALACE' 



Rear of Pitti Palace 



Boboli Gardens 



site offers the widest opportunity for variety both of scheme 
and of detail, and for the exercise of good taste and discrimi- 
nation. No formula can take the place of good taste. 

V. 

A few words are now in order as to the location of the 
most important examples of this art. They are naturally to be 
found in greatest number in or near Rome, the seat of the lux- 



52 



European and Japanese Gardens 




ENTRANCE GATE OF THE VILLA ALBANI 



urious Papal court and aristocracy of the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries. Within the walls, in the northern part of the 
city, and adjacent to the Passeggio Pubblico or Pincian gardens, 
is the Villa Medici, overlooking the walls into the Borghese 
Villa, which spreads its vast expanse northwards into the sub- 
urbs, and commanding westwards a marvelous prospect of the 
city and of the glorious dome of St. Peter's across the river a 
couple of miles away. The Villa Torlonia is at the northeast 
corner of the city, next the Porta Pia. The Quirinal Hill is 
largely occupied by the royal palace and gardens, the latter 
very extensive and beautiful, but too flat and uniform to cap- 
tivate the beholder as do some of the other gardens. The cen- 
tral zone of the city contains no important gardens on the cis- 
tiberine side except the Piazza Vittorio Emanuele and the 
Botanical Gardens ; the southern zone boasts the Villa Mattei 
(now, I believe, the property of an American, the Count Hoff- 
mann), a villa full of the restful charm of antiquity, though it 
has suffered from modern alterations. The finest Roman villas 



53 



The Italian Formal Garden 

lie either on the hillsides — e.g., the Villa Pia and the Vatican 
Gardens, the Villa Barberini — now greatly altered, I under- 
stand, from its pristine state and used as an insane asylum — 
close to St. Peter's ; the Villas Lante and Corsini, contiguous 
to the public parkway of the Passeggiata Margherita ; or out- 
side the walls, like the immense Villa Pamfili Doria, outside 
the Porta S. Pancrazio ; the Villa Borghese, also of vast extent, 
and, like the Pamfili Doria, comprising both picturesque parks 
with winding drives and the formal gardening I have been de- 
scribing ; and the magnificent Villa Albani, the most formal 
and monumental of all the Roman gardens, near the Porta 
Salaria. 




THE ONE AT TIVOLI ' 



the Villa d'Este 



54 



European and Japanese Gardens 




ONE OF THE REMARKABLE GROUP AT FRASCATI ' 
Plan of the Villa Aldobrandini 



The Italian Formal Garden 




STRIKING VISTAS AND MONUMENTAL EFFECTS' 



The Chateau d'Eau 



Villa Aldobrandini 



European and Japanese Gardens 




WATERWORKS . . . UNUSUALLY ELABORATE AND EFFECTIVE " 
Villa Torlonia-Conti At Frascati 

Two other groups of villas are of easy access from Rome : 
those at Tivoli, or rather the one at Tivoli — the Villa d'Este, 
and the remarkable group at Frascati, comprising the Aldo- 
brandini, Falconieri, Muti, Conti, Mondragone, and others : 



57 



The Italian Formal Garden 




FOREMOST IS THE BOBOLI GARDEN' 



The Hill Walk 



Boboli Garden, Florence 



European and Japanese Gardens 




STRETCHES ALONG THE LAKESIDE' 



Lake Maggiore 



while at Castel Gondolfo is the beautiful Villa Barberini, which 
reproduces the arrangements and aspect of the ancient villa of 
Domitian. All these villas among the Alban hills differ radi- 
cally from those at Rome in two respects. The house is not a 
mere " casino," but a permanent residence or palazzo, and the 
abrupt slopes of the hillsides give opportunities w^hich are 
skilfully availed of, for striking vistas and monumental effects. 
Owing to the abundant mountain streams, the water works in 
these gardens are unusually elaborate and effective. 

Further away from Rome is the hill on which stands 
Caprarola, with the imposing pentagonal palace and the beau- 
tiful gardens of the Farnesi, built from V^ignola's designs ; and 
a few miles further yet, the Villa Lante at Bagnaia, near Viterbo, 
one of the most perfect and typical of Italian villas. 

Florence is naturally the center of another group of villas, 
erected either by the Medici or by grandees of the Medi- 
cean court. Foremost is the Boboli garden belonging to the 



59 



The Italian Formal Garden 




WALL FOUNTAIN BY CARLO RAINALDI 



Villa Borghese 



European and Japanese Gardens 

Pitti Palace, just without the Porta Romana ; a garden of vast 
dimensions, with less of architectural interest than most large 
palace or villa gardens, but possessing many features of great 
beauty. At Poggio a Cajano is a villa dating from the early 
sixteenth century, with a fine old park. A little further from 
Florence is the Villa Medicea in Careggi, once the property of 
the Dukes of Tuscany, and dating from 1460, but (I believe) 
without important gardens. Still further to the northwest is 
the Villa Petraia, and west of it the Villa Castello, both now 
belonging to the crown, and having very elaborate and beau- 
tiful gardens, which are well worthy of a visit. Another Me- 
dicean villa near by, the Quarto, with a fine garden, belongs to 
the Stroganoft' family. One or two other villas are to be seen 
on the way to Fiesole. The fine Villa Poggio Imperiale, dat- 
ing from 1622, is now a girls' school and not open to the pub- 
lic. At Genoa are no villas of the first importance, nor do I 
know of examples elsewhere in Italy comparable with those 
hitherto mentioned, either in historic or artistic interest, except 
the Caserta palace gardens already mentioned. 

There are, however, both in Northern Italy, especially 
near Genoa and about Lake Como, and in Southern Italy in 
the vicinity of Naples, many villas of the second rank, some 
of quite modern date, others dating from the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. These, in their measure, embody the 
same principles and possess a like charm w^ith those of which 
I have given some account in and near Rome. The difterence 
is in degree rather than in kind. 

I have discussed only the Italian villa, because it is the 
most monumental and characteristic form of the Italian gar- 
den. There are thousands of public and private parks and gar- 
dens which, owing to difterent controlling conditions and to the 
influence of English and French models, depart radically from 
the formal villa-type. Long, narrow stretches along the river- 
side or lakeside, small areas surrounding railway stations, open 
squares in the cities, demand a difterent handling from that I 
have described. In these we meet with both good and bad 
examples, but most of them are delightful, if for no other rea- 
son, because of the brilliance of the grass and of the flowers 
and foliage plants, and because of the lovely atmosphere and 
surroundings of the scene. Everywhere is water — in jets or 
cascades, and always with architectural accompaniments and 



61 



The Italian Formal Garden 

decorative sculpture, not always good but seldom offensive, 
and sometimes meritorious. The shores of Lake Como, the 
Cascine at Florence, the Chiaja at Naples, are familiar to every 
tourist, and serve to call up memories of delight. But these 
do not fall within the category to which I have preferred to 
confine mvself. 




HILLSIDE GARDENS NEAR NAPLES 



62 



European and Japanese Gardens 




DETAIL OF THE STAIRWAY 



Gardens of the Villa Corsini 



(See Frontispiece) 



ENGLISH GARDENS 

By R. Clipston Sturgis 




VIEW FROM MONTECUTE HOUSE 



ENGLISH GARDENS' 

By R. CLIPSTON STURGIS 

FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 



AS with English architecture the chief interest centers 
about the simpler work, the homely quality of which di- 
^ rectly appeals to one, so the smaller and less pretentious 
English gardens seem in every way most perfect. There one 
finds no question of the rival claims of formal and informal 
school, of Italian, French or English styles, but merely a nat- 
ural common-sense adaptation of means to an end, a direct 
meeting of needs. In the great Italian and French gardens 
one feels the presence of a complete and studied scheme, and 
also of a conscious effort for efl'ect. As exponents of the art 
and science of landscape gardening, French and Italian ex- 
amples are distinctly superior to the English ; but for mere, 
lovable beauty fitting the needs of true country-lovers, nothing 
can approach the English garden. 

In many periods of English gardening the influence of 
foreign styles and fashions has been felt, and has to a certain 
extent modified the planning and planting of grounds; but 
except in those places which have attempted grandeur, one 
finds no purely scholastic work. The earliest work of which 
we have any perfect knowledge is that which was influenced 
by the Italian Renaissance. When Inigo Jones and Sir Chris- 
topher Wren introduced the balance of classic planning and 
the detail of classic work, the gardens developed on similar 
lines. This period gave us the formal terrace, the walled gar- 
dens, the bowling-greens, the clipped hedges, and the intelli- 
gent use of architectural accessories which mark the majority 
of good English gardens. The general character of this work 

^ This article was a paper prepared merely for a short address to fellow architects and 
makes no pretense to anything but the most cursory survey of this most delightful and 
inexhaustible study. The article was not written with a view to being illustrated, so that 
the photographs now published do not bear any very close relation to the text. It is hoped, 
however, that they may give some idea, clearer than I can convey in words, of the charm 
of the English work. 



67 



English Gardens 

remained practically unchanged tor a couple of centuries. 
With the beginning of this century, when taste in architecture 
and art was distinctly declining towards its final depth in the 
thirties, there came first, a carelessness for the beauty of the 
old gardens, which resulted in neglect ; and then the period 
when, under the guidance of Brown, the imitation of nature 
and the making of pictures was the aim everywhere. This 
resulted not only in the destruction of many fine gardens, but 



f » 




A TERRACE AT MONTECUTE 



in a general perversion of taste which it has taken many years 
to counteract. 

The reaction from Brown's hopeless endeavor to imitate 
nature and to avoid everything pertaining to formality was 
very quick, and yet it is indicative of the English temper that 
it was not a violent swing of the pendulum to the other ex- 
treme. Kemp, writing between fifty and sixty, laid down rules, 
or rather suggested principles which seem thoroughly sound 
and sensible. He urged the necessity for formal treatment in 



68 



European and Japanese Gardens 




English Gardens 




A DOUBLE-BORDERED PATH 



and about the house, and yet valued the freer and more natural 
possibilities which were unaffected by the immediate proximity 
of architecture. He deprecated the imitation of nature and 
made a strongs plea for retaining " art," by which he meant any- 
thing of a formal or studied nature. Simplicity, convenience, 
seclusion were among his chief aims, and it is characteristic of 
the Englishman, that, in enumerating the things which require 
consideration when planning the grounds, he named economy 
first. By this he would include not merely making the plan 
on such a scale that the owner could afford to lay it out, but 
he would consider also the cost of maintenance, and still fur- 
ther, the arrangement of the place so that the maintenance 
could be done with economy. This is a matter of great im- 
portance, and to its just consideration is due to a large extent 
the number and beauty of the English gardens. As a rule 



European and Japanese Gardens 

work is not laid out or undertaken which cannot be easily exe- 
cuted and maintained without taxing the resources of the 
owner. 

With the English, gardening is so old an art that the cost 
of maintaining can be as readily estimated beforehand as can 
the cost of the execution. Tradition, habit, social custom have 
all combined to fix the lines on which work shall be conducted, 
and thus to make a standard of "form" used in the athletic sense, 
for the maintenance of the service of the house, the stable, and 
the grounds. If a man can afford but three servants, his house 
is arranged on the basis of what three servants can do thor- 
oughly well, and he will not have a larger house unless he can 
afford to have his service adequate. His stable will be regu- 
lated with equal care. He will have only such horses and car- 
riages as can be kept in first-rate condition. Applying these 
same principles to the garden, collecting and making use of 
the cumulative experience of many generations of gardeners, 
he lays out his ground with clear foresight as to its mainte- 
nance. Nothing is to be slovenly, nothing neglected. The 




A GARDEN BACKED WITH TREES 



English Gardens 




European and Japanese Gardens 




A SHADED WALK AT FRANKLEIGH 



results amply justify this course. The thoroughness of the 
English garden is the very root of its charm. The garden, 
whether large or small, shows care in every part, and not only 
care, but generally the loving care of the man who is really 
fond of his garden as a whole, and of his plants individually. 
One cannot go through a garden with the owner or his gar- 
dener without feeling that to them the garden is as intimate as 
the house. 

The whole attitude of mind of the Englishman is the de- 
sire to satisfy a need rather than to supply a luxury, and there- 
fore this is generally found to be the chief motive in the laying 
out of his garden. The great majority of English gardens 
have developed in direct response to practical needs, and if one 
studies these needs and sees how they have been met, the his- 
tory of nine-tenths of the English gardens is given. The 
needs of the house are approaches and courts or yards. 
The main approach is for the convenience of the family 
and their guests ; it is not considered as a portion of the 
grounds especially desirable as an outlook. The chief living 
rooms are where aspect and outlook are most favorable ; 
so that the entrance hall is naturally given the less desirable 



73 



English Gardens 

aspect. On this account, if for no other, the immediate ap- 
proach to the house is not so capable as other places of being 
made livable. Considerations of utility are therefore paramount. 
If it is a carriage entrance, a short drive and a convenient turn 
are the things sought. This has resulted in a number of types 
of which the most familiar are the simple in-and-out on 
different lines, and the straight drive finishing in a circle. 
Both these lend themselves readily to a formal treatment, 
and trees planted regularly, hedges or walls give an element 
of style to the simplest of plans. The kitchen approach is even 
more utilitarian ; the chief object being to keep it separate from 
the master's approach and screened from view. The most 
direct approach is the simplest of turns ; privacy is obtained 
by walls, fences, hedges, or, in the case of basement offices, by 
sinking the road below the general grade. 

The formal planning of the early seventeenth century, 
which developed the H and E plans, suggested the partial or 
complete enclosing of the two approaches. It reproduced in 
more regular form the early forecourt and basecourt. The for- 
mer name is still generally in use, the latter is more generally 
referred to as kitchen-court. The forecourt became at once an 
interesting feature of the plan, but never lost its true status. It 




A WALK BEFORE THE HOUSE 



74 



European and Japanese Gardens 




English Gardens 

was always the approach and never a place to idle or take 
pleasure in. Its beauties are such as can be readily appre- 
hended at a glance. One finds none of those hidden nooks, 
and unsuspected charms, which are incidental to the garden. 
A simple piece of greensward, a few trees, possibly such statu- 
ary or vases as will tell at a comparative distance and can be 
comprehended in a glance, — these are the general features of 
forecourts. Sometimes, but rarely, one finds paved forecourts, 
but this is unusual, and the English are more apt to reduce 
their pavement or gravel to the smallest dimensions rather 
than increase it unnecessarily. 

The kitchen-court is entirely for the use of the trades-peo- 
ple and for the accommodation of the kitchen service. It may 
sometimes serve as a drying-vard, though this is generally sep- 
arate. It is therefore paved or gravelled throughout to be dry 
under foot and to allow the free handling of wagons. It is the 
noisy and disagreeable part of the establishment, and it is con- 
sidered essential that it should be removed as far as possible 




A GARDEN CORNER 



76 



European and Japanese Gardens 




BOX-BORDERED BEDS 



from the main house and as much shut off as may be. House- 
hold service is broug^ht to much greater perfection in England 
than in this country, so that distances, which to an American 
housekeeper would seem impossible, are deliberately planned 
for, that offices and service-yards may be out of sight, smell 
and hearing. Generally the kitchen-court is shut off by part 
of the house itself, and if this is not possible, it is screened by 
high walls. The drying-ground is generally more open and 
sunny, and not infrequently clothes are dried on the ground 
instead of hung on a line ; so that the drying-ground may be a 
pleasant piece of turf, not unsightly even when covered with 
white linen. Thus in meeting the need of approaches to the 
house the two courts are developed. 

Before taking up in detail the needs which decide the 
character of the grounds more remo\'ed from the house, it will 
be well to point out that the English invariably carry into their 



English Gardens 




h 



TERRACES 



I 1 iimSt u'"«<iK^ 




A SMALL HOUSE-COURT 



78 



European and Japanese Gardens 




A BROAD WALK TO THE HOUSE 



grounds the same desire for privacy and separation which is 
noticeable in the house. The careful separation of the kitchen 
and offices from the master's quarters has already been re- 
marked, and a similar separation is to be found between 
other parts of the household and between individual rooms. 
The nurseries are apart ; the master's own rooms are apart ; 
the guest-rooms are apart ; and finally, except in suites of 
rooms used only for entertainment, the individual rooms are 
well divided from each other. This same principle underlies the 
garden plan. The place is considered as an outdoor house. 
The grounds are divided up according to their use, and each 
portion has its well-established boundaries. 

In a place of even an acre or two the first consideration is 
what can be got from the land in the way of actual return, and 
the space for a kitchen-garden is almost the first consideration. 
The demands of pleasure may march side by side with this 
utilitarian requirement, but it is very rare to find a man laying 



79 



English Gardens 




THE MORE FORMAL GARDEN 



out his place with no thought of anything but beauty and pas- 
time. (3ne may therefore be justified in consiclering" the 
kitchen-garden as the most prominent necessity after the 
approaches. This garden must be near the house and near 
the kitchen and the gardener's house, and yet not too evident. 
It is ne\er, however, treated as an unsightly part of the estab- 
lishment ; and, indeed, there are many kitchen-gardens which 



80 



European and Japanese Garde 



NS 





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THE GARDEN WALK 



are quite delightful spots in which to ramble. A garden at 
Wells has dwarf espalier apples bordering its path, beautiful 
fruit trees on its fine old walls, standard roses marking the 
lines of some of its paths, and the flowers and fruit are helped, 
rather than hurt, by the peas and beans, the splendid blue- 
green of the cabbage tribe, and the rich brown of the turned- 
over soil. As the kitchen-garden is to be an apartment by 
itself, as it were, it is bounded, and at the same time pro- 
tected, by walls. Large gardens would be subdivided, and one 
might find separate gardens for herbs, for small fruits, for roots 
and for the more quickly growing crops, such as beans and 
peas. The necessary water is made use of as an interesting 
feature. Water which has lain in the sun is better than cold 
well water, or water just from the town mains, so one generally 
finds a good-sized basin making an interesting pool in the gar- 
den. A proper place for tools creates a garden-house — fre- 
quently quite a delightful feature — and the greenhouse, hot- 



8i 



English Gardens 




European and Japanese Gardens 

bed cold-frames, bins for leaves, and all such accessories of 
garden-work are made to lend interest to the kitchen-garden 
and give it the air of order which is characteristic of all English 
work. The desire to make the most of every scrap of ground 
induces the utmost care in getting all that is possible out of 
smallest compass. The walls, as well as the ground, must yield 
their increase, and all must be in compact form. This has pro- 




A MODERN HOUSE AND GARDEN 



duced the many varieties of dwarf trees which add interest to 
the garden, and has led to the careful rotation of crops, and 
the following of crops in the same season, all of which increase 
the appearance of care and thoroughness. 

Flowers are so interwoven with kitchen-garden, part of 
which is generally occupied by the varieties which are more 
useful for cutting than for their beauty out of doors, as to 
lead one to the consideration of the flower-garden as the next 
need to be satisfied. The flowers one might divide under three 



83 



English Gardens 




GRASS TERRACES AND GARDEN-HOUSE 



heads : roses, perennials, annuals. This is of course a very primi- 
tive division, but those three classes are represented in every 
English garden ; and the three, as befits their dift'erent charac- 
teristics, are generally separated, so that one has the rose-gar- 
den, the perennial beds or borders, and the parterre of annuals. 
Roses are the special pride of the English gardener, and with 
climbers, standards, and low-budded roses, and all the varieties 
of briars, almost anything can be done with the rose-garden. 
Like other parts of the place it is enclosed with walls or a hedge. 
The perennials, being like the roses permanent occupiers of 
the ground, are placed in deep rich beds ; and for convenience 
both of tending and picking, are frequently in long, narrow 
borders against the walls. This gives the tall growing plants 
the support and protection of the wall, and leaves room for the 
various smaller varieties in the edge. Such a long border, with 
perhaps a hedged walk or bowling-green running the length 
of it, is a familiar and most charming feature. The annuals 



84 



European and Japanese Gardens 




English Gardens 




European and Japanese Garde 



NS 




THE WALL OF A MODERN GARDEN 



are in small beds by themselves, the beds often bordered with 
dwarf box, — so that the regular outline of the beds may be 
pleasing even when the beds themselves are empty. To reach 
the gardens and to enjoy them when in their midst, one finds 
pleasant walks, some shady, — perhaps completely embowered, 
— others sunny, for use on cold days. There are also seats and 
garden-houses. 

In laying all this out, there is generally a double aim ; 
first to gi\'e, by occasional long vistas, a sense of size ; and sec- 
ond, by screened enclosures and half-concealed exits, a sense 
of privacy and a stimulus to the imagination for what lies be- 
yond. In the most interesting gardens the element of the un- 
expected is always present, and the fact that it cannot be a sur- 
prise to the owner does not really detract from its value ; to 
every visitor it is a source of delight, new pleasures still unfold- 
ing until the last surprise of the round is in finding oneself 
back again at the starting-place. 

Architectural laws demand a certain amount of level space 
immediately about the house, and \'arious sports require level 



87 



English Gardens 

ground further afield. Tlie bowling-green, croquet-ground, 
and lawn-tennis courts have formed at one time or another 
necessary parts in the layout of even a small place. These 
flat pieces of the splendid turf which is so common in England 
are among the most beautiful features of the English garden. 
Here again the love for retirement suggests enclosing walls or 
hedges, so that the court or the green is really a great out-of- 
doors room, with garden seats and benches about, or perhaps 
in the more stately ones, busts on plinths in Italian fashion set 
against the somber green of the yew hedge. Again one sees 
that this feature is produced in direct response to a need. 

Level ground cannot always be obtained naturally, and the 
need of it has developed the terraces which abound in the hilly 
districts. These may be the mere formal treatment of the plat- 
form on which the house securely rests ; or they may form the 
various divisions of the hillside garden ; or again, surrounding 
the sunken garden, they may give the pleasant walk and that 
most delightful of all views which one gets of a small garden. 




A LEVEL STRETCH 



European and Japanese Gardens 

the view looking down. All the features we ha\'e considered 
may be worked out on a groundwork of terraces, and their 
possibilities as well as their charms, are endless. Sedding 
well said that however much we were refined and cultivated 
there was always an underlying savagery which at times 
demanded satisfaction. One must tire of the sure mark of 
man's hand, and long for nature unrestrained : the wide sea- 
board and the rude forest. So one finds in almost every Eng- 
lish place of any size some wilderness, some copse, or combe, 
which shall be left free and wild, or at the least a reminder of 
nature quite free. But the transition from the cultivated aspect 
of nature to its wilder form must be gradual ; one does not 
want to open the garden-gate in the wall and be in the forest. 
Between the two, one finds the pasture-lands, rolling, sheep- 
cropped fields, bordered not with the masonry wall or the 
clipped hedge, but with the wild hedgerow, thick with thorn 
and holly and punctuated with the upstanding elms. From the 
pastures to the copse and the woodland the transition is easyo 




English Gardens 




A WELL-LAID LAWN 




A GARDEN PATH 



90 



European and Japanese Gardens 




THE OBLONG POOL 



Thus the Enghsh garden has its forecourt and basecourt, 
its gardens for fruit, vegetables and flowers, its places for sport 
and recreation ; and to guard and protect all these from search- 
ing winds and prying eyes, are the boundaries, the divisions, 
the walls and the hedges. The walls, especially those near the 
house, are always in close touch with the house itself. They 
are built of stone if the house be of stone, and of brick if the 
house be a brick one, and in their ornament, balustrades, gate- 
ways, posts, copings and finials, they echo the character of the 
house. As one goes further from the house the walls are less 
architectural and more purely utilitarian. The boundary wall 
of the place, or the north or east wall of the garden may be ten 
or twelve feet high, for these are to serve as a real protection ; 
others may be but two or three feet high, mere boundaries to 
mark a line. The hedge is perhaps the commonest bound of 
all, and this varies from the rough pasture hedgerow to the 
clipped yew, or holly, or box. The ornamental clipping of 



91 



English Gardens 

hedp^es and individual trees, or what is known as topiary-work, 
was an importation from Holland, and at one time was very 
popular. There are many examples of this work in the older 
gardens, but to-day clipped work is rather more sober, and, on 
the whole, more in keeping with the common-sense beauty of 
the P^nglish garden. 

Shrubs are rarely seen as individual show-plants, but are 
generally massed and placed with some special end in view 




AN OUTLOOK FROM THE HOUSE 



beyond and apart from their mere beauty. They will ser\'e to 
screen the offices or the kitchen-yard, or to make a windbreak 
for more delicate things growing on the borders of the lawn. 
Trees also are used very cautiously as indi\idual specimens. 
Occasionally a great plane tree or an ilex stands in lonely gran- 
deur at the edge of the lawn ; but, as a rule, the trees are 
planted in groujjs to serve definite purposes, — sometimes to 
shut out an undesirable view, sometimes to form a vista 
towards a pleasant scene. Again, a group of elms at the end 



92 



European and Japanese Gardens 

of a place may simply serve as a backt^round, a threat drop- 
scene, which finishes the view and lea\es one in doubt as to 
how much more there may be beyond. Many a small place of 
two or three acres gives an impression at once of seclusion and 
of size, because the great trees ]3re\'ent one's seeing what lies 
beyond. The larger places will, of course, have their copse 
and woodland ; but e\'en here the marks of axe, mattock and 
saw show that thoroughness and care, and that eye to profit 
which per\'ade e\'erything ; for dead wood is always cleared 
out, the spindling trees are felled, the brushwood is cut and tied 
in fagots. Everywhere there are signs of an old industry, a 
well-worked countr), where e\'erything must be turned to 
account. When one wanders through English gardens and 
feels all their delight, one cannot but be conxinced that com- 
mon-sense and thrift are the roots on which the beauty has 
grown and thrived. 




A HEDGE GATEWAY 



93 



FRENCH GARDENING AND ITS MASTER 

5v John Galen Howard 



FRENCH GARDENING AND ITS MASTER 

By JOHN GALEN HOWARD 
FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS 



SUCH a subject as that upon which I have been asked 
to say a few words is of far too vast a scope to be 
adequately treated within the Hmits of a short paper. 
I have therefore thought it wise to single out one great epoch 



and to con- 
fine my re- 
marks and 
my illustra- 
tions mainly 
tothatperiod. 
This can the 
more justly 
and the more 
readily be 
done in 
speaking of 
French gar- 
dens, inas- 
much as all 
the early his- 
tory of hor- 
ticulture i n 
France leads 
up to the per- 
iod I propose 
especially to 
principles which governed it and made its greatness. 

The entire history of French gardening is dominated in a 
degree very exceptional in any art or people by a single per- 
sonality — that, namely, of Le Notre. I do not mean to say, 




A LEAD VASE 
Basin of Neptune, Versailles 



i 1 lustrate 
and ever 
since that 
time, all work 
of French- 
men in land- 
scape design 
has been 
done with 
that age of 
achievement 
very vividly 
in the eye of 
the artist, 
whether he 
worked from 
it as an ac- 
cepted proto- 
type, or flung 
himself into 
eager oppo- 
sition to the 



97 



French Gardening and Its Master 







mm-' 



1^-^^^.: 




of course, that there was no important gardening in France 
before or after his day, or by other men during the period of 
his own activity. The gentle art was indeed practiced with 
keenest deHght, and with signal success, by countless genera- 
tions of Frenchmen before the man 1 have named began his 
career ; and to so great a degree is this true, that the French 
may fairly be called a nation of garden builders. There has 

always, from the 
\' e r y earliest 
times, been, in the 
French character, 
a special fondness 
and aptitude for 
the art of horticul- 
ture ; and from 
the earliest times 
there have been 
striking examples 
of gardens whose 
design has been 
developed in obe- 
dience to the laws 
not merely of an 
art, — that is to 
say, a science, — 
but of a JiJie art, 
strictly so-called. 
N o medieval 
stronghold or re- 
ligious establish- 
ment was com- 
plete without its 
space (however 
small) set apart 
for the special purpose of a garden — a pleasure-ground 
where flowers and fruit-trees were disposed in such forms 
and in such combinations as to give not only a practical 
result as a matter of agriculture, but a grateful effect from 
the point of view of pure beauty. The French seem always 
to have felt an instinctive delight in the simple pleasures 
of the open air : in flowers and trees, and vistas, and run- 




^^{iij-ui5i>s^__ 



PLAN OF THE GARDENS OF VERSAILLES 



98 



European and Japanese Gardens 




French Gardening and Its Master 




BASIN OF LATONE AND THE PALACE 



VERSAILLES 



ning waters, — which led them to bring all these things into 
their own homes, to add them as so many intimate features of 
the greater house. But all this instinctive delight in the gar- 
den, all this acquired skill in garden-making, led on and up to 




THE BASIN OF APOLLO 



VERSAILLES 



European and Japanese Gardens 

the climax of accomplishment under the famous gardener of 
the Grand Monarque, who in his single practice summed up 
all that was best in what preceded him. 

It is easy to see the influence that Italy had upon the early 
development of agronomy in France, just as it is easy to trace 
the growth of the other arts from Italian sources. Italian en- 
lightenment preceded the French ; and in the same way that, 




THE BASIN OF CERES 



VERSAILLES 



in the early centuries of the Christian Era, Gaul drew her in- 
spiration from Rome, so later through the ages, France, while 
always coloring with her own character what she appropriated 
from her instructress, sat at the feet of Italy. This is true in a 
measure of all the arts, — but most distinctly so in gardening. 
It would even be difficult in many instances to distinguish the 
design of a French garden of the middle ages from an Italian 
example of a similar period. And this for a twofold reason : — 



French Gardening and Its Master 




GROVE OF THE COLONNADE 



VERSAILLES 



first, the French civilization followed in the wake of the Italian, 
and second, the art of gardening was at that time little devel- 
oped, compared with what it afterward became, and was, in 




THE BASIN OF THE DRAGON 



VERSAILLES 



European and Japanese Gardens 




THE ORANGERY 



VERSAILLES 



effect, the least advanced of all the arts. Consequently the 
characteristics of the various peoples practicing it were little 
marked, for the early arts of all peoples much resemble one 
another ; it is only at the higher, and especially the highest 
points of their respective developments, that the finer and more 
characteristic elements of a race are brought out in its art 
accomplishment. 

Du Cerceau, in commenting upon the undoubted influence 
which the taste of the Italians exercised over their northern 
neighbors, outlines the type which was common in both France 
and Italy. "Everywhere," he says," were great divisions with 
av-enues of high trees, fences of hazel, and hedges of hawthorne. 
Long, trellised arbors, opening out at intervals into shady sum- 
mer-houses, ideally arranged for scenes of gallantry, sur- 
rounded the open central space, or divided it into several 
individual gardens. Marble basins with spouting water-jets 
and cascades, gliding from artificial rocks, made up the prin- 



103 



French Gardening and Its Master 




European and Japanese Gardens 

cipal remaining features of the rather chilhng- and over-sym- 
metrical decoration of the ItaHan gardens, in which everything 
seemed obedient to a single demand, — coolness, shade, 
mystery," 

The transition from the dark ages to the Renaissance was 
marked in gardening more by a change of scale than by a 
change in kind, or point of view. Whereas the old-time castle 




THE CROSS OF FRANCHARD 



FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU 



garden, or cloister garth, had been a small and confined 
area, — what could without too much sacrifice of security and 
increase of protective garrison be afltorded within the moat, — 
the fifteenth century brought in larger ideas, and not only the 
desire, but the possibility of using wider spaces. Gardens 
expanded, accordingly, from cramped, walled spaces, strictly 
within the precincts, to wide free fields stretching far out over 
the plain, and even into the forests, — themselves more and 



105 



French Gardening and Its Master 




GORGE OF THE MEDLARS 



FOREST OF FONTAINEBLEAU 



European and Japanese Gardens 

more frequently being brought into the great scheme by means 
of long straight avenues cut across through the thickest woods 
and giving centers of interest from which again new lines of 
view were opened out, and out, till wide regions, many miles 
in extent and of the most diversified character, were held in 




PLAN OF THE PALACE AND GARDENS OF FONTAINEBLEAU 

leash, as it were, — their wildness preserved as their most pre- 
cious quality, yet netted and meshed across by lanes, round 
points, paths and avenues, which gi\ e them a fascinating sem- 
blance of complete submission to civilizing influences. Who 
has traversed the marvelous forest of Fontainebleau, for exam- 
ple, but with a new sense of the wildness, the strangeness, the 
indomitable spirit of nature ? Yet all that wild territory is but 
a vast garden, its design composed and adjusted with the last 
degree of skill, and cultivated with a care as extreme in its 
large way as that with which, in their more intimate fashion, 
the Luxembourg gardens, for instance, are dressed and cod- 
dled. 

The principal professional garden-makers of the Renais- 
sance were the three MoUets, Bernard Palissy, and Olivier de 
Serres, the last being rather a practical man than a designer. 
The Mollets seem to have been a sort of dynasty in the art, the 
first of the name having created for the Due d'Aumale the 
famous gardens about the Chateau d'Anet, of which practically 
nothing is left. The castle itself has been razed, with the 
exception of some of the loveliest portions, which were removed 
to the court of the School of Fine Arts in Paris. Claude Mol- 



107 



French Gardening and Its Master 

let, the son of the first, is considered as the immediate prede- 
cessor of Le Notre himself ; to him is ascribed the invention 
of floral embroideries. He is largely responsible for the gar- 
den schemes at Fontainebleau, and at St. Germain-en-Laye 
(1595). His work in the Gardens of the Tuileries was, how- 
ever, totally destroyed by freezing. Andre Mollet, the third 
of the family and son of Claude, became gardener to Louis 
XIII. He was afterward called by James I to England, where 
his work had a determining influence on the development of 
gardening in the United Kingdom. 

Bernard Palissy, the same who is better known for his 
work in porcelain, is remembered in gardening annals for a 
certain fabulous pleasure-ground w^iich was carried out, accord- 
ing to his unbridled imagination, for Catherine de Medici at 
Chenonceaux, where he completely abandoned himself to his 
fancy for rockeries, basins, frogs, turtles, snakes, shell-w^ork, 
etc. A long " dialogue " of his on this subject, expatiating on 
the beauties of the work, is quoted by Mangin in his interest- 
ing book. 




THE PALACE FROM THE PARK 



FONTAINEBLEAU 



108 



European and Japanese Gardens 




French Gardening and Its Master 




European and Japanese Gardens 




BASIN OF THE CASCADE 



FONTAINEBLEAU 



But it was not the professional gardeners alone who were 
successful in the art. Many of the finest gardens were laid out 
by architects who designed the grounds to harmonize with their 
buildings. The finest garden of that time which has been pre- 
served for us in anything like its original beauty, in fact the 
only remaining Renaissance garden in Paris, is the garden of 
the Luxembourg, which was laid out, between 1615 and 1620, 
for Marie de Medici by Jacques Debrosse, the architect of the 
palace of the same name. Originally these grounds were of 
great extent, but they have been repeatedly curtailed and en- 
croached upon, only the central portions immediately about 
the palace retaining their original character. There are cer- 
tainly few spots in the world which possess a more exquisite, 
a more satisfying charm. 

But all of these men, successful as they were, yield the palm 
to Le Notre, who occupies much the same place in the art of 
gardening as Shakespeare fills in poetry ; a place recognized 
not by his own race alone, but by the world. Le Notre, indeed, 



French Gardening and Its Master 

is a name known to all men, — and of how many other names 
in his art can that be said ? How many of the names I have 
mentioned are known, except Palissy, whose work in other 
lines is his chief claim to renown, beyond the circles of those 
who have made a special study of the history of horticulture ? 
In other arts one can run through a dozen names with ease, 
but in gardening there is one man, and one only, of such com- 
manding genius that his name is a household word and his 
chief work a recognized classic. Le Notre resembled Shakes- 
peare in another point, namely, that he was content to take 




THE CHATEAU FROM THE LAKE 



CHANTILLY 



the material ready at hand and perfect it, rather than run 
to the ends of the earth for new motives on which to build, 
new forms in which to cast his work. The poise, the insight, 
the imagination of genius of the first order was his ; but he 
saw his field to be large enough in perfecting and in inter- 
preting what his predecessors had prepared for him. The 
quintessence of genius and of wisdom, this, — not to throw away 
as nothing worth the skill of preceding ages and his own ; but to 
seize it, treasure it, transmute it in the alembic of his own per- 
sonality, — put it forth at last pure gleaming metal of creative 
power. Of such stuff was the originality of Shakespeare in 



European and Japanese Gardens 




French Gardening and Its Master 




European and Japanese Gardens 




PLAN OF THE PARK OF MARLY 



poetry, and of Le Notre in gardening. Of vvliat immense inter- 
est it would be to show how this principle holds through the 
history of all the arts, — that he is greatest who can take what 
other men have done and better it, perfect it, — not he who pre- 
sumptuously shatters traditions, essaying, as it were, what no 
one has ever succeeded in doing, anew and alone to construct 
an art out of his own inner consciousness. 

Andre Le Notre was born at Paris in 1613. He was the 
son of the King's suvintendant, as his title was : what 
would correspond, I suppose, in our time and tongue, to 
Director of Works, — head gardener and outside man. The 
father was anxious to have his son become a painter, though in 
those days the natural course of events was for a man's son to 
follow in his father's footsteps. We are forced to draw the 
conclusion that the surititendant had found his calling none 
too much like the beds of roses his business was to cultivate, 
since he went so far out of his way to induce his son not to 



"5 



French Gardening and Its Master 




European and Japanese Gardens 

follow it. However that may be, the son showed early a fondness 
for things beautiful, was always, from his earliest childhood, 
about the gardens of the King, with his father, and showed an 
aptitude for drawing as well as cultivating. At his father's 
instance he studied painting under Simon Vouet, in whose 
studio he met, among others, Le Sueur, Mignard and Lebrun ; 
but his heart turned ever to the paternal calling, and his incli- 
nation was finally so strong as not to be denied. He took up 
the profession of gardening in the highest sense, — what we 
call landscape architecture. It is certain that his training in a 
studio where he came into personal relations with the leading 
painters, sculptors and architects of his time, had a definite 
and very powerful influence over the young man's development, 
giving him a wider range and a truer artistic sense than even 
his genius could have commanded otherwise. The practical 
knowledge, which was his as a direct heritage from his father, 
become virtually his second nature, was thus linked with the 
broadest artistic education of his time. Beside these advant- 
ages he possessed an intellect of great clearness and power, 




A PROMENADE IN THE TUILERIES 



117 



French Gardening and Its Master 




European and Japanese Gardens 

and a personal character at once of winning charm and of 
masterly strength. An individuality so marked as his would 
have achieved greatness in almost any time or land ; small 
wonder, then, that in a period so sympathetic with his nature as 
was the age of Louis XIV in France, — an age of luxury, limit- 
less expenditure, devotion to art, to pomp and to ceremony, 
an age which played upon his own nature and formed it, and 
in turn was played upon and formed by it, — we find him 
accomplishing a work very exceptional in its extent and its 



gg^i/i^* 




THE TUILERIES AND THE LOUVRE 



variety. No doubt ne had countless assistants in his multifa- 
rious tasks, but his spirit informs and distinguishes all the end- 
less list of works which are counted among his masterpieces ; 
and, in addition, the indications of his genius served to remodel, 
and practically reconstruct, many of the gardens of an earlier 
day, already famous, but transformed and made to blossom 
anew under the suggestions of his enlightening imagination. 
He stands alone for his art, through the century, which was 
honored by his birth, and the succeeding one. He summed up 
all that was best worth while in the garden practice of his own 
time and that preceding it, and welded it into a consistent 
whole, through sheer force of creative power. He invented, 
indeed, no new kind, but he ennobled and synthesized the 



119 



French Gardening and Its Master 




THE MEDICI FOUNTAIN 



GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG 



European and Japanese Gardens 




A FOUNTAIN 



GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG 



insignificant and scattered elements of preceding practice 
into a finely realized ensemble which stands up proudly, over- 
shadowing the earlier time and shedding light over our own. 

Before his time there had been comparatively little varia- 
tion in the design of gardens. One work mimicked another, 
the same effects being reproduced with only slight changes to 
suit the individual requirements or difficulties of the client or 
the situation. No great underlying principles of design were 
recognized, and no effort had been made to get outside of 
the work and look at it in a large way, objectively. Errors 
and imperfections had constantly arisen from miscalculations 
of foreshortening, the easiest of faults to make, and the most 
difficult to obviate, except by long and dearly bought experi- 
ence. A plan or bird's-eye view, as everyone knows, may be 
charming, and yet the execution prove very disappointing, 
owing to just this awful difference in the foreshortening. If 
this is true now, with numberless examples of landscape work 
from which to argue, on which to base one's judgment, how 
much greater must have been the difficulty in former times. 



French Gardening and Its Master 




European and Japanese Garde 



NS 



That it was well-nigh insurmountable we know. But the 
instinct of Le Notre for the peculiar beauty of gardens, united 
with a clear imagination, enabled him to free himself, to a 
remarkable degree always, and in some instances absolutely, 
from the cruel hampering of conventional materials of study ; 
and at Versailles, probably his finest work, certainly the finest 
that has been preserved to our day, his spirit seems to have 
risen entirely superior to ordinary limitations, and has pro- 








1 



!iiKII 




PLAN OF THE GARDENS OF THE LUXEMBOURG 



duced a work as perfect in its complex simplicity, and in every 
detail of its effect as adequate and as just, as it is impressive. 

Le Notre possessed in preeminent degree what his race 
calls "the sense of the beautiful in space"; and in like degree 
he had, to quote one of his biographers, " the sense of elegance 
in majesty and regularity." He was especially fortunate in 
his patron. Louis XIV was an ideal client for a designer like 
le Notre. While he seems not to hav^e been the actual discov- 
erer of his gardener's talent, he at any rate gave him his 
noblest opportunities, took him literally into his heart, and 
heaped benefits and honors upon him. I fancy, from the 



French Gardening and Its Master 




PLAN OF THE GARDENS AND PARK 



accounts of his dealings with his artists of various kinds, that 
the Grand Monarque was far from being what an architect 
would call an easy client. He had ideas of his own, thought 
he knew it all better than the cleverest of others, made changes 
from beginning to end during the progress of the work ; and 
indulged, without a thought of the other man, in all those 
annoyances which, if they were not at times so difficult to 
bear with, we should call petty. But with all that, he recog- 
nized very substantially, in honors, in pecuniary grants, and, 
best of all, in enlarged opportunities for work, his indebted- 
ness to those who worked for him. Le Notre was a consum- 
mate courtier, never for a moment presuming to a semblance 
of social equality with the great nobles for whom he worked ; 
but at the same time giving rein, in their presence, to the 
charming child-like good nature and enthusiasm w hich was so 
important a factor in his success. Those who employed him 
loved him, and he made his way, and got his way, quite as 
much, probably, by the exercise of his personal charm as by 
bringing into play the more masterful powers of his intellect. 



124 



European and Japanese Gardens 




French Gardening and Its Master 

In the midst of pompous formality he was a playful child, and 
the great world liked the contrast. At one time in his career 
he visited Italy, wishing to see what had been done there in 
his art. While in Rome he was summoned to the presence 
of the Pope, Innocent XI. The great prelate entered into 
familiar conversation with the gardener, complimented him 
upon his wonderful successes, and expressed regret that he 
had never had the opportunity of seeing his work. Le Notre 
entered into the subject with enthusiasm, abandoned all for- 
mality, assured the Pope that he must visit France, and see his 
Versailles. At this, Innocent protested as being too old to 
undertake such a journey. " But your holiness is still vigor- 
ous," cried Le Notre, " and I wager will bury the entire college 
of cardinals ! " With that he threw his arms about the Pope's 
neck and kissed him effusively, — an unheard-of liberty, which 
seems to have delighted the head of the churh. One is left to 




THE GRAND CASCADE 



ST. CLOUD 



126 



European and Japanese Gardens 




RUINS OF THE PALACE 



imagine the charm of ingenuousness with which such antics 
must have been accompanied for them to have been received 
as they were. When word of this event reached the court at 
Versailles, high wagers were laid that the tale was untrue be- 
cause incredible. But Louis XIV, when he heard the account, 
burst into laughter, asserting he knew it was true, " Because " 
said he, " he kisses even me, when he has been long without 
seeing me ! " 

M. Andre maintains that the great Frenchman found 
nothing in Italy worthy of his attention, and returned without 
having learned anything, — a claim which we need not take too 
seriously. He busied himself, while there, by creating two of 
the finest gardens in the vicinity of Rome, those of the Villa 
Pamfili and the Villa Ludovisi. He was ennobled in 1665, and 
died in 1700. Coysevox, the sculptor of many of the exquisite 
details of the great gardener's work, executed his bust, which 
is now in the Louvre. 

A list of Le Notre's works would be too long for me to give 
here ; but I must mention, in addition to his masterpiece at 
Versailles, his gardens at Marly, now nearly obliterated, but 
which must have been only less fine than Versailles, though in 



127 



French Gardening and Its Master 

an essentially different manner. The gardens of the Tuileries 
also are in large part his, though the scheme as a whole is 
hardly distinguishable, owing to serious changes in portions. 
Of course his tour-de-force for Fouque at Vaux-le-Vicomte, one 
of his earliest great efforts, is famous for the jealousy it roused 
in the king's breast when he saw so magnificent a work exe- 
cuted for his financier. Le Notre soon after began the mar- 
velous series of works for his royal master Louis XIV himself. 
Other of his important designs were at Sceaux, Meudon, Chan- 
tilly, and St. Cloud. 

In closing this hasty sketch, I can hardly do better than 
to quote, in translating, from that fascinating work, Lcsjardins, 
by M. Mangin, to which I am largely indebted for the facts I 
have presented. M. Mangin says, in speaking of Le Notre : — 
" What he accomplished was to naturalize in France the classic 
style, that of the century of Augustus and of the Renaissance. 
Far from breaking with tradition, Le Notre was on the contrary 
its most eminent representative in modern times, and his supe- 
riority over his immediate forerunners comes from the fact that 
although the faithful disciple of the old masters, he knew how 
to draw inspiration from their lessons without copying their 
works." 



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THE TERRACE AT ST. GERMAIN 



128 



JAPANESE LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



By K. Honda 



I 



JAPANESE LANDSCAPE GARDENING 

(Notes to the Lantern Slides) 
By K. HONDA 

MEMBER OF THE JAPANESE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



TN Japan we have many types of garden construction 
which have been described by different authors. In this 
paper we confine ourselves to the most important and 
interesting designs chosen from the best sources. 

The south is always considered the most suitable ex- 
posure for dwellings among Japanese, as the summer breeze 
generally prevails from this direction. This idea is so well ob- 




MANGWANJI GARDEN 



131 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 



'^*f^- '^■'%J'*^ 







HILL GARDENS-FINISHED STYLE 



served in garden construction that everyone adiieres to the 
principle. 

In general, the composition of gardens may be treated 
under two divisions : Flat {hiranhva) and Hill Gardens 
{tsukiyania-iiizva), both of which may be again subdivided into 
three different forms called, respectively, " Finished," " Inter- 
mediary," and " Rough." 

HILL GARDEN — FINISHED STYLE. 

Plate I represents an ordinary Hill Garden of the finished 
style, and may be taken as the best form suitable to spacious 
land, located in front of the principal building. The positions 
of the principal hills, stones, trees, cascades, bridges, and isles 
are all arranged, as shown upon the plate. 

HILLS. 

Hill I, which forms the central feature, represents a moun- 
tain of considerable size, and should have broad sweeping sides. 
Hill 2, always taken in connection with No. i, is to be placed 
close by the latter, but is somewhat lower and consequently is 



132 



European and Japanese Gardens 




Japanese Landscape Gardening 

of secondary importance. Hill 3, placed on the opposite side 
of No. I, occupies a part of the foreground. It is intended to 
represent a lower hill or spur divided from the principal moun- 
tain by a lowland. The lowland is supposed to be occupied by 
a hamlet, road, or stream. It must be planted with a few trees 
or shrubs of thick foliage, so as to give an idea of a sheltered 
and inhabited dale. Hill 4 is a small eminence, generally dis- 




THE MIKADO'S GARDEN 



posed in the near foreground, which forms a part of the hill- 
side. Hill 5 is placed in the farther end of the garden, in such 
manner that one can have a view of it between Hills i and 2. 
As this hill is intended to look like a distant peak, it must be 
executed so as to have a precipitous appearance, while its bot- 
tom must be covered perfectly to give only a suggestion of 
foreground. The illustration shows ten important types of 
rock-stones, of which the following is an explanation : 



134 



European and Japanese Gardens 




Japanese Landscape Gardening 




European and Japanese Gardens 

STONES. 

No. I, termed "Guardian Stone," is a high one and is 
placed in an upright position. It is situated in the center of the 
garden, and is called the dedication stone. No. 2, forming 
a balance with No. i, is placed on the opposite side of 
the cascade. No. 3, large and flat, is termed "Worshipping 
Stone." It is placed generally in the foreground, or, some- 
times, on the center of an island, or even on an open space, 
accessible by stepping-stones. In the illustration it is repre- 
sented as located on an island. The combination of No. i 
and No. 3 can never be omitted from a garden. No. 4, termed 
" Perfect-View Stone," is placed in the " near foreground." It 
is equally good to have it on a side of the garden, if by the latter 
position it maintains a due prominence. Often two or more flat 
stones are used. No. 5, situated on the other side of the gar- 
den, and just in front of No. 4, should be so placed as to be in 




STONE LANTERNS 



137 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 




^^.,^^1 



SORINTO. NIKKO 



European and Japanese Gardens 

harmony with a flat one, termed " Water-Tray Stone." Both 
are situated on the shore of a lake, and are carefully arranged 
in connection with the high-water level. No, 6, called " Moon- 
Shadow Stone," occupies an important position in the distance 
being placed in the valley between two principal hills, just in 
front of the peak (Hill No. 5). No. 7, called "Cave Stone," is 
upright and is very similar in use to the " Guardian Stone," 
for which it is often substituted. No. 8 generally goes by the 
name of " Seat-of-Honour Stone." It is broad and flat, and 




LANTERN AND WATER-BASIN 



FUKAGAWA GARDEN 



placed in a horizontal position, next to the "Worshipping Stone," 
it is an important feature. It answers to a small vertical of second- 
ary importance. No. 9, called "Pedestal," or "Snail Stone," 
occupies the first rank among the stepping-stones, and is ar- 
ranged in the foreground. It is somew^iat higher than the 
others. No. 10, called "Idle Stone," consists of two broad, 
low, and somewhat round stones, should be placed in the shade 
along the water. Others show^n in the plate are of minor im- 
portance, and their special names are not given ; they are 
merely arranged to produce harmony in the composition. 



139 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 

TREES. 

Before giving a full account of the vegetation in Japanese 
gardens one must mention that a particularly noteworthy tree is 
always found among several others of less importance. No. i, 
termed "Principal Tree" {Shojin-boku), is a pine or an oak 
well grown, accompanied by other trees with thick foliage. 
No. 2, called "Perfection Tree" {Keiyo-boku), is only second 
in importance to No. i. Its trunk, branches, and foliage are 
objects of particular interest. No. 3, called " Tree of Solitude " 
[Sekisen-hokit), may be either single or grouped, but must 
always have thick foliage. It is intended to give shade and to 
impart a very secluded aspect to the garden. No. 4, called 
"Cascade Circuit" [tak/gakoi), consists of a number of low 
trees or even bushes. They are planted around the waterfall in 
such a manner as to shelter the cascade from too much bold 
exposure to the eyes. No. 5, having the name of " Setting 
Sun" (Sekiyo-boku), is planted in the background of the garden. 
The tree is planted to turn westward, and is intended to screen 
the garden from the rays of the setting sun. The tree best 
adapted for the purpose is generally maple, or, if this cannot 
be obtained, at least another red foliage tree should be pro- 
cured that would produce a striking effect under the evening 
sunshine. They are sometimes replaced by the cherry and 
plum tree. No. 6 is called the " Perspective Pine " [Mikosi- 
matsii) ; it is designed to give an effect of extended distance 
and naturally is placed behind a garden or in a place partly 
concealed. No. 7 goes by the name of the " Outstretching 
Pine" [Nagashi-matsu], suggesting branches overhanging a 
stream or a lake. This is generally a single evergreen tree 
in the foreground with branches outstretching over a stream. 

Other accessories are : A, a well, with a weeping willow ; 
B, a lantern, just close to the tree No. 2 — the light from the 
lantern is thrown over the water ; C, the back-gate of the gar- 
den ; D, a bridge leading from the mainland to the lake islet ; 
E, small passway on a plank ; F, an arched stone bridge with 
moulded stone parapet ; G, a water basin with a sink and a 
pool ; H, a stone lantern behind the water-basin. The step- 
ping-stones in the foreground guide the steps of a stroller 
from the garden to the veranda, while the entire ground is 
covered with well-prepared earth. 



140 



European and Japanese Gardens 




HILL GARDEN— INTERMEDIARY STYLE 




HILL GARDEN— ROUGH STYLE 



HILL GARDEN — INTERMEDIARY STYLE. 

Plate II represents a Hill garden of the intermediary or 
semi-elaborated style. Here only four hills are given, corre- 
sponding to Hills Nos. I, 2, 3, 5, produced on the Plate I. In 



141 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 

this garden the examples of ''distant mountains," "near 
mountain" and " mountain spur" are only suggested by the 
general outline. 




FLAT GARDEN— FINISHED STYLE 



STONES. 

Stones I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7, 8 and 9 are similar in arrangement 
to those shown in Plate I. It must be observed that the stone 
No. 5 has been submerged into the water, while in Plate I it is 
shown quite distinctly. Other stones, too, have been replaced by 
large ones. As a rule, the heavier and larger the stones used, 
the smaller they are in number. Stone 10, placed by the 
wooden bridge, is termed "Edge Stone." Stone 11, called 
"Screen Stone," forms another type of perfection in the back- 
ground. No. 12, placed vertically, and No. 13, placed hori- 
zontally, form the bottom of a cascade, and together with other 
stones form a rockery. 

The " Principal Tree," No. i, is a single pine tree with a 
bush placed beneath. No. 2, "Tree of the Setting Sun," is 
planted at the extreme west. No. 3, " Tree of Solitude," some- 



142 



European and Japanese Gardens 



' J;!^''"^-^^^^|*Y"Hg_^ 







I 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 




BRACKET BRIDGE 



FUKAGAWA GARDEN 



what larger, fronts to the east. No. 4, " Cascade Screening 
Tree," is an outstretching pine, which partly shelters the water- 
fall. "Perfection Tree," "Perspective Pine," and "Stretching 
Pine," are not placed in this form of garden. The lake is smaller 
than the waterfall ; here it is well represented with an islet 
and a bridge over it. "The Snow-View Lantern," as shown in 
Plate I, is placed in the background and in close connection 
with the "Western Tree" and the "Distance Stone" (No. 
11). The other stone-lantern in the center is much larger in 
size, and plays an important role in the whole composition. 
The arbor, water-basin and other features profusely used in 
the elaborate style are wanting in many instances in this 
style of garden. For the enclosure a bamboo fence only 
is used. 

HILL GARDEN — ROUGH STYLE. 

Plate III gives a model of a rough hill garden, where only 
the principal points of interest are given. Here two small 
mounds answer for hills, and give an idea of slight elevation, 



144 



European and Japanese Gardens 

but the representation of the " Distant" and " Near Hills" are 
always kept in the scheme. A few stones disposed tastefully 
suffice to give a faint resemblance to the original elaborate fin- 
ished style. Stone i, the "Guardian Stone," marks one of the 
principal points, and is backed by a tree of somewhat smaller 
height with fiat stones and bushes. No. 2, having the name 
of the " Moon-Shadow Stone," occupies a position on the 
furthermost prominence, paired with a fiat stone ; the same 
effect may be produced by a group of shrub bushes, with 
a stone lantern of larger size, and a spreading pine-tree. No. 
3, a fiat stone of same group, corresponds to the Hill 2 in the 
" Finished Style." No. 4 is indispensable. The " Principal De- 
clining Stone " is placed by the water. It may serve as an 
"Idling Stone," No. 10, of the Plate I, previously described. 
No. 5 is the " Seat-of-Honour Stone," accompanied by a com- 
panion stone and bushes, and is often backed by the " Tree of 
the Evening Sun." No. 6 forms the bank of the stream and 
extends to the east. Here the lake is reduced to a mere stream. 
It has its source behind the " Guardian Stone," amidst rock- 
work. Both sides of the stream are connected by a log bridge. 
A w^ater-basin in the foreground is quite alone. The stepping 
stones are somewhat larger. No. 9, the " Pedestal Stone," and 
No. 8, the " Label Stone," are intended to be equally perfect 
imitations of nature. 




A GENTLEMAN'S GARDEN 



145 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 




FLAT GARDEN— INTERMEDIARY STYLE 



i --^ ) 




FLAT GARDEN— ROUGH STYLE 



146 



European and Japanese Gardens 




STONE STEPS 



HAKONE TEMPLE 



FLAT GARDEN — FINISHED STYLE. 

Now we have to describe the Flat Gardens [hira-iinua) 
shown in Plates IV, V and VI. Here is shown a valley or a 
pond. The three styles: Finished, Intermediary and Rough are 
as important in Flat Gardens as they are in Hill Gardens. 



H7 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 



■^.^yyyiylf ^^ J ' -'^J ■ ^tW^jjj ' l^j'T-.^ ' ' . ' ' ^ I' *'' 




KUNOOZAN TEMPLE AT SHIZUOKA 



European and Japanese Garde 



NS 



In an example of style (Plate IV) most of the ground is 
covered with fine earth. Stone i, the "Guardian Stone," 
and Stone 2, "Principal Rock," occupy the center, and with 
other rock-work form the mouth of a cascade. 

Although no water is visible, yet the conception of the 
source is never neglected, for it is represented by a white peb- 
ble. It is backed by stones Nos. 3 and 4, which would not 




GARDEN LANTERNS 




WATER-BASINS AND LANTERNS 



149 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 

fail to give an idea of the hidden spring. Stone 5, " Worship- 
ping Stone," occupies a very important position in the center 
of the ground. No. 7 is called the " Island Stone," as the land 
extends far enough to give an appearance of an island. No. 
6, the " Perfect View Stone," besides the well, is arranged with 
shrubs in connection with other stones. No. 8, " Moon-Shadow 
Stone," is re-enforced with rock- work and bushes. No. 9 is a 
group called the "Stone of the Evening Sun." Behind them 




A TEA-HOUSE GARDEN 



we have the large " Tree of the Evening Sun." Tree No. i, the 
"Principal Tree," and the "Cascade Tree," are evergreens, to 
be visible between Stones i and 2. The "Tree of Solitude" is 
represented by two small pines in connection with shrubs. 
Plants and a stone lantern marked D are also placed so as to 
be attractive. A well, and a water-basin, as well as the ever- 
greens, form a part of the foreground. On the western side 
one notes a water-basin A, a stone lantern B, a screen fence, 



150 



European and Japanese Gardens 

and a trained pine. This combination shows a cultivated 
taste. In the foreground is placed Stone No. lo, termed 
" Stone of the Two Gods." No. 1 1, " Pedestal Stone," and No. 
12, "Level Stone," are placed among the stepping-stones. 
In this form of garden a cleared ground is arranged in the 
center. Stepping-stones are placed near the well and water- 
basin and mark the boundary. 



FLAT GARDEN — INTERMEDIARY STYLE. 

Plate V is intended to give an idea of the " Intermediary 
Style" of a " Flat Garden." It is somewhat more boldly exe- 
cuted than the previous one. In the middle and in front of No. 
2 or " Seat-of-Honour Stone " one finds the " Guardian Stone " 
No. I, with pagoda stone A as well as a pine-tree and a few 
shrubby plants. No. 3, " Moon-Shadow Stone," is placed in the 
further end in combination with a flat stone. No. 4 and No. 
5 consists of the "Worshipping Stone" and the "Stone of the 
Setting Sun," as they are designated. The latter fronts to the 
west; thence comes the name. No. 6, "Stone of Two Gods," 
is similar to the previous one. No. 7, "Pedestal Stone," and 
No. 8, "Level Stone," form a feature of the foreground and with 
a few stepping-stones form the border of the ground and 
lead from the gate to the well. Besides these there is also a 
large oblong step in front of the veranda answering to the 
threshold. An open space in the center of the garden is the 
ideal representation of water while the "Worshipping Stone" 
there signifies an island. The well, as might be judged from its 
appearance, is rather primitive in style, being made of a rough- 
hewn stone, and being perfectly overhung with thick pines 
and a few aquatic plants. The arrangement of the water- 
basin, fence and lantern is very similar to the preceding 
one, but in this example a bolder and simpler form is adopted. 
Of the two stone lanterns, the one in the east is arranged with 
rocks and the other with a small clump of trees. No. 3 rep- 
resents the "Tree of Solitude ;" No. 2, the "Tree of the Evening 
Sun." A large pine No. i, besides the "Worshipping Stone," 
plays a very important role ; No. 4, the " Outstretching Pine," 
overhangs the well. 



151 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 

FLAT GARDEN — ROUGH STYLE. 

Plate VI will give an idea of this style, in which the ele- 
ments so luxuriously represented in the previous forms are 
simplified ; in this case the ground itself is reduced to a 
layer of fine earth. A well, a lantern, and trees, stones, etc., 
illustrate this peculiar type with a water basin and a drain, 
two small groups of stones, a few stepping-stones on spa- 
cious ground. Stone i, in the center, is termed "Guardian 
Stone"; Stone No. 2 is known as "Worshipping Stone," or 
"Honour Stone"; the two merge into one, with two combi- 
nations of the Stone 3. Stone 3, located in the west and 
termed the "Stone of the Setting Sun," forms a quite im- 
portant element, to which are combined two other rocks, one 
bush, and one large-leaved plant. No. 4, called "Stone of the 
Two Gods," is the typical one among a smaller group of orna- 
ments in the eastern foreground. Here the stepping-stones are 
rather few. They are bolder, and somewhat rough in nature, 




GARDEN OF THE AKASAKA RIKIU 



152 



European and Japanese Gardens 

but no hewn stone is introduced in this style of garden. Two 
pines, shrubs, and a group of low plants are all the vegetation 
required in the garden. These, together with a few water 
plants, serve to cover a rustic well. A large "Snow-stone lant- 
ern " also forms a part of this group. In the corner of the 
foreground to the west are shown a water-basin, a drain, and a 
screen fence. A bamboo enclosure of simple nature encircles 
the garden. 




1^! I I ; 
i i i i ! 



GARDEN <^ENCES 



LANTERNS. 

Plate VII gives the different types of garden-lanterns. 
Every Japanese garden must have a stone lantern. They add 
greatly to the composition of the garden in connection with 
rock-work, shrubs, trees, fences and water-basin. In introducing 
stone lanterns, however, strict principles of harmony, both in 
size and form, must be observed, otherwise it would be detri- 
mental to the effect of the garden itself. They are generally 
located at the foot of a hill, on an island, on the bank of 
a lake, by a well or a water-basin. The use of the lantern 



153 



Japanese Landscape Gardening 




GARDEN GATEWAYS 



is not to give light, as might be supposed, but it serves only 
as an architectural ornament. True, sometimes the lantern is 
lighted, but it is generally in a very limited extent. When 
the lantern is situated along the lake or by a stream, it is 
generally lighted, to produce a fine effect against the water. 

WATER-BASINS. 

Plate VIII represents different styles of water-basins and 
stone lanterns, not mentioned elsewhere. The proper use of a 
water-basin, is for washing the hands; and it is therefore 
placed near the veranda of a house ; but water-basins, with other 
accessories, such as lanterns, bridges, etc., are designed to 
be an attraction in a garden, and when placed beside orna- 
mental hedges or concealed by foliage are very pleasing in 
effect. 

garden fences. 

Plate IX gives different types of hedges and bamboo screens 
such as are used in the garden. Sometimes they serve as the 
boundary of the garden ; on other occasions they serve to 
shelter obstacles, while in other cases they only serve as or- 
naments. They are arranged along water-basins, and are 



154 



European and Japanese Gardens 







'■^l fsf 



f^Jf f -frgg/1, 



-_ w^ t 




GARDEN BRIDGES 




V*^ 






GARDEN ARBORS 



termed "Sleeve Fences" {sode-gaki). They are generally 
made of bamboo, held by wooden frames, twigs or branches. 
They are intended to give a rustic aspect. Cords and knots, as 
used for force work, are always objects of high importance. 
Fibers of sago, fancifully colored, are well deserving of merit, 
although in many cases creepers are used. 



155 



Japanese Landsape Gardening 



GATEWAYS. 



Plate X gives gates and gateways. Every garden is pro- 
vided with different forms of entrances. These forms vary ac- 
cording to the size, style, and nature of the garden. The site 
of a gateway is always carefully chosen. 



GARDEN BRIDGES. 

Plate XI illustrates different kinds of garden bridges. 
vSome of them are made of stone, while others are formed by 
rock-work, with earth on them. It is not intended to give a 
quick access over a water course, but rather to add an attrac- 
tion to a garden. It equally serves to allow a pleasant view of 
the pond and stream beneath to those who may stroll over it. 



SUMMER HOUSES — ARBORS. 

A large garden is invariably provided with one or more 
summer houses or arbors, constructed on a hill or other emi- 
nence. From the summer house usually a charming view can 
be obtained of the garden. Different types are given in Plate 
XII. They vary from the simple to a very artistic construc- 
tion, with floors, doors, and windows. The Japanese denounce 
geometrical regularity, as it is always thought to vitiate the 
taste. 



156 



NOTES ON 

A JAPANESE GARDEN 

IN CALIFORNIA 

^V C. H. Townsend 



NOTES ON 

A JAPANESE GARDEN 

IN CALIFORNIA 

By C. H. TOWNSEND 

AN experiment has been in process of development in 
San Francisco, which illustrates the possibilities of 
1^ introducing the pleasing and picturesque effects of 
Japanese gardens in a foreign country. The accompanying 
illustrations from this garden are interesting when studied in 
connection with the subject as it is presented by Mr. Honda, 
and as it has been shown in the various illustrations from exist- 
ing gardens in Japan. 




THE ENTRANCE 



JAPANESE GARDEN IN CALIFORNIA 



159 



Notes on a Japanese Garden in California 



It is interesting to observe the variations in feeling and 
effects between it and the gardens in Japan. The greater free- 
dom of treatment and less conventionality shown in this gar- 
den may probably be attributed to the influence of work in 
this country on the gardener, or possibly to the lack of age, 

which is an im- 
portant factor in 
the final produc- 
tion of the effects 
attained. 

A Japanese 
gardener, Mr. 
Hagiwara, and 
his family were 
secured, and the 
design, planting 
and making of 
the garden was 
left entirely in 
their hands. 

This garden is 
probably the only 
important one of 
its kind in this 
country, but its 
accessibility to the 
public has been 
the means of at- 
tracting consider- 
able attention to 
the methods of 
the Japanese gar- 
dener. The gar- 
den was opened to the public as a Japanese Exhibit at the 
Mid-Winter Fair in California in 1893. Its attractions were 
immediately recognized and its development has prospered 
under the Park Commission, which is fully alive to its value 
as one of the city's pleasure grounds. 

The tract selected for the garden was covered with a scat- 
tered growth of pine trees perhaps fifteen years old, most of 
which were permitted to remain, but which have been consid- 







FLOWERS IN POTS 
A JAPANESE GARDEN IN CALIFORNIA 



160 



European and Japanese Gardens 




Notes on a Japanese Garden in California 




SUMMER-HOUSE AND STREAM 



A JAPANESE GARDEN IN CALIFORNIA 



erably altered in appearance by Mr. Hagiwara. The ground 
occupied is nearly an acre in extent. A Japanese family 
reside in the garden, the ladies, always in native costume, 
serving tea to visitors for a small charge. 

The garden at San Francisco is one of very brief growth 
as compared with the ancient gardens of Japan, but its at- 
tractions have been added to from time to time and have 
increased with its age. The composition of the Japanese 
garden depends chiefly upon the arrangement of its trees, 
boulders, paths, streams, bridges and other artificial structures. 
It is, least of all, a flower garden, and is probably best under- 
stood when regarded as a reduced copy of the scenery of a 
country — conveying the impression produced by a picture. 
While it is true that most of the visitors to this transplanted 
garden regard it as merely a novelty, it is nevertheless one of 
a type that would be most satisfactory if adopted generally in 
this country. Its various features remain attractive throughoii j^ 
the year and afford opportunities for continuous development 



162 
























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